Rapid changes that erupted in the United States during the antebellum period in the American history brought to life several new social movements and phenomena. The new society that was formed by the Market Revolution, growth in population, change in its composition and expansion to the west showed a great desire for better life, for self-improvement and correction of the social vices of that time. These processes have resulted in the Second Great Awakening, Utopian communal experiments, temperance, women’s rights societies and other social movements. The story of the Kingdom of Matthias, or in more sober terms, a fringe religious community kept together by a fanatical distortion of Christianity, is a vivid example of the processes that swept across the United States in antebellum years. The community was far from being and isolated event. Robert Matthews’s “kingdom” was a direct and logical product of his era. There were other attempts at building communities and societies that bear partial, yet significant resemblance to the Kingdom of Matthias.
Market Revolution and technological advances of the early XIX century have changed the composition of the American society. Market economy, supported and inspired by the favorable transportation network of waterways and growing railways created great new opportunities for business. “In the euphoric aftermath of the War of 1812, this country commerce was bursting with promises of material riches for anyone with the initiative and the funds to participate” (Johnson and Wilentz, 2012, p. 61). Robert Matthews had enjoyed temporary commercial success in a small town of Coila where he, for a short period, became a “stalwart of Coila society” (Johnson and Wilentz, 2012, p. 60). However, he ended up bankrupt and found himself in economic insecurity of a wage carpenter. He was not alone. Part of the population that did not enjoy the opportunities of the emerging market economy developed a strong contempt towards the new religious trends such as Charles Grandison Finney’s democratic preaching style that was extremely popular at that time. “[The] revivalist preachers maintained [that] God has created man as a ‘free moral agent’, sinners could not only reform themselves but could also remake the world” (Foner, 2014, p. 440). Matthias and his most devoted follower, Elijah Pierson, their economic misfortunes aggravated by personal life tragedies, have fought against the new religious trends and protected old conservative moral norms of male domination and denouncement of wealth. They were not alone: “ever since the 1830s, various wild American holy men who resemble Matthias even more closely have formed their own communal cults, basing their prophesies on scripture and translating their personal disappointments into holy visions of restored fatherly power” (Johnson and Wilentz, 2012, p. 62).
Matthias was not alone in his personification of a holy prophet. The story of the Mormons emergence bears very close resemblance to the Kingdom of Matthias. The biggest difference between the two was that the Mormons survived to the present day and the Kingdom did not. Other parts of the story are quite typical for the antebellum period. Joseph Smith’s religious visions, his self-proclamation as a prophet of God is almost a carbon copy of the Matthias’ prophesy. It is very symbolic that the two of them met in the Mormon town of Kirtland and had several discussions about their visions and holy destiny. “Matthias was almost certainly drawn to Kirtland because he knew that, amid this nationwide spiritual ferment, he and Joseph Smith shared certain enemies – the comfortable, pious entrepreneurs who commanded the market revolution. Matthias and Smith, poor men who were rooted socially and emotionally in the yeoman republic of the eighteenth century, had been diminished by that revolution” (Johnson and Wilentz, 2012, p. 6-7). Both Mormons and the Kingdom of Matthias followers shared the ideas that were popular at that time: family values, temperance and the equality of all men, regardless of their wealth. “The church founded by Smith shared some features with other Christian denominations including a focus on the family as the basis of social order and a rejection of alcohol. It also responded to the disruptions caused by the market revolution” (Foner, 2014, p. 346).
Temperance, or renouncement of alcohol consumption, was not a strictly religious feature of the time. During the antebellum years temperance movement was a part of the middle class culture. It was part of the nation-wide process of “personal self-improvement, self-reliance, and self-determination” (Foner, 2014, p. 341). The fact that Matthias, along with many other communal experimental societies, put specific emphasis on rejection of alcohol is just another confirmation that the Kingdom was a reflection of its time.
Antebellum years saw a rise to many communal experiments. “About 100 reform communities were established in the decades before the Civil War” (Foner, 2014, p. 434). Kingdom of Matthias was just one of the many so-called “utopian” societies of the time. Certain elements of the principles the Kingdom was built on can be found in many other utopian communities. “These communities differed greatly in structure and motivation. Some were subject to the iron discipline of a single leader, while others operated in a democratic fashion. Most arouse from religious conviction, but others were inspired by the secular desire to counteract the social and economic changes set in motion by the market revolution” (Foner, 2014, p. 435).
One of the largest religious communities of the time – the Shakers, were founded by the Mother Ann Lee, who, in the popular trend of the period, had been enlightened by Jesus, to immigrate to United States from England and start a community. The Shakers denied the institution of family as one the cornerstones of the social order and have experimented with complete separation of men and women. They have also rejected the concept of individual wealth. These features bear resemblance to the Kingdom of Matthias in denying family and personal enrichment, as well as the divine visions of the leader.
Denunciation of traditional family values was the feature of another antebellum utopian community – Oneida. Founded by John Humphrey Noyes, it was a strictly dictatorial society. One of the most notoriously famous features of Oneida was its “complex marriage” concept. The members of the community completely denied traditional family and were allowed to get involved in a sexual relationships with any member of the group. It is hardly surprising that such behavior has brought indictment of adultery and forced Oneida members to move to a new location. If compared to Kingdom of Matthias, Oneida rules seem to be quite similar. The same dictatorial approach and the same “relaxed” relationship between men and women principles were in place. “[R]epeatedly, Americans caught in bewildering times have made sense of things primarily with reference to alterations in sexual and family norms, and a perceived widespread sexual disorder” (Johnson and Wilentz, 2012, p. 173).
Matthias’ concept of the male supremacy is rooted in the popular beliefs of his time. The antebellum years saw the development of domesticity cult, where the role of a woman was to provide a shelter for her husband at home, and, most importantly, to be completely dependent on him. “’Virtue’ for a woman meant not only sexual innocence but beauty, frailty and dependence on men” (Foner, 2014, p. 349).
The Kingdom of Matthias, with all its seemingly unique eccentricity and absurdity of its leader’s behavior, was a product of its time, the logical reflection of the society development, trends and popular beliefs. Rejection of market revolution, family values, personal wealth, “divine” revelations of the leader were typical for numerous religious communities of the day.
References.
Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty. An American History. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2014. Print.
Johnson, Paul E; Wilentz, Sean. The Kingdom of Matthias. Oxford University Press, 2012. Print.
