II. The Early Organization
The Social Co-operative Community Objects and Views. Ashton authored this small (4" x 2.5") booklet, which outlines the "objects and views" of the "Social Co-operative Community" (soon to be renamed the Manchester Social Community Company, or MSCC.) The ambitions of the Company to gain a public foothold are evident in the penciled "Printed in London for the Society" at the bottom of the right-hand page.
Objects and Views (continued). The book outlines matters of business (where and when meetings are to be held) as well as more lofty philosophical statements ("character is formed by each individual.") This mix of the concrete needs of the Company and its abstract goals is echoed in the composition of the document: it is an offical philosophical statement, but it is written in pencil.
Stock card, Manchester Social Community Company. The MSCC sold shares to raise money for their passage to America. In this sense, their venture was similar to that of the joint-stock companies which sponsored early emigration to America. This is one of William Ashton's stock cards.
Verso, stock card of the Manchester Social Community Company. Printed on the back of the stock card are the obligations of the MSCC to its shareholders, and the obligations of shareholders to the MSCC. Perhaps most interesting is the last rule, "No Theological Discussion shall be permitted in any of the Company's meetings," suggesting that the Company saw the use of separating business from philosophy.
Stock card, Manchester Social Community Company. This card belonged to Mrs. Ashton, signifying that women were equal shareholders in the venture.
Memorial to the Members of the Manchester Social Community Company. Written before the Company's departure for America, this document gives the philosophical justification for the Company's departure. The flourish at the top of the page suggests an attempt by Ashton to emphasize its importance. This document is one of several which attempt to capture the Company's raison d'être.
Verso, Memorial to the Members of the Social Community Company. The document also outlines, with the strict numbered organization characteristic of Ashton, the relationship between those members of the Company who will stay in England and those who will constitute the first emigration party to America.
Final page, Memorial to the Membership of the Manchester Social Community Company. The last page of the document contains the signatures of both male and female members of the Company. Note the cross-out in the upper right hand corner: "Company" was originally written, then crossed out to become "Community." This suggests a tension in the group: were they primarily a community bound by a shared philosophy, or a company bent on profit?
"Till we have built Jerusalem"
By 1832, Ashton's ambitions had turned from research into action. With a group of fellow laborers (including his brother, Whiteley) Ashton founded the Social Co-Operative Community, soon renamed the Manchester Social Community Company (MSCC). The Company's goal was to "extricate [them]selves and [their] families from the difficulties and dependencies to which all of the working classes in competitive society are subject." The Company wished to found a communal society which would challenge capitalism, its exploitation of the working class, and its destruction of the environment. Although the Company initially searched for land on which to found its society in England, Ashton explains that they were drawn to America because of the availability of "good" and "cheap" land there (land which was untainted by industrial pollution or capitalist price-gouging.) The Company was likewise inspired to emigrate by the example of other utopian societies which found refuge on the American frontier. In later letters, Ashton refers to meetings with Shakers and with Robert Owen of the New Harmony community in Indiana. The American frontier seemed to promise a return to a pre-industrial society - not only because it offered a simpler relationship to the land, but also because like-minded communities previously established there practiced what Ashton and his followers considered to be the ideal relationship between humans and nature.
All members of the Company were not to emigrate together. Rather, most members (including Whiteley Ashton) stayed in England with the purpose of raising more funds for the Company in order to facilitate their own, later, emigration. After a year of fundraising and philosophical debate, Ashton and his followers set out to build "Jerusalem" anew on the other side of the Atlantic.