Owen left school at the age of nine and spent a year as a shop assistant before going to London. There he was apprenticed to James McGuffog, a draper, and moved to Lincolnshire. He returned to London in 1785 and worked in another draper's, but left because of his health and moved to Manchester. There, he set up a business with Ernest Jones for the manufacture of spinning machines for the cotton trade and became a very successful businessman. In 1793, he became a member of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society which helped to broaden his intellect. In 1796, he joined the committee of the Manchester Board of Health as a representative of the cotton industry. In 1799, Owen and his partners purchased the New Lanark cotton mills. As an advocate of social reform, Owen improved the working conditions of the employees of the mills by reducing the working hours, setting minimum age requirements and introducing a number of other reforms to better their living conditions. In 1816, he opened the Institute for the Formation of Character, primarily for the education of workers' children, but which also provided adult education. Becoming disillusioned with the inability of Parliament to pass much-needed legislation regarding social reform, Owen purchased land in Indiana in the USA and established the New Harmony community with his son William who was put in charge of the social co-operative experiment. After four years in the US, Owen returned to Britain in 1828. In 1832, he started his own newspaper, The Crisis and in 1834 was primarily responsible for establishing the Grand National Consolidated Trade Union, but by the end of the year, his labor empire collapsed under pressure from businessmen and Parliament. From 1835 to 1845, a new movement began which promoted Owen's ideals and was known as the Owenites. They developed Rational Religion and held services throughout the country. Owen was always critical of orthodox religion and wrote numerous pamphlets against the establishment. In 1837, he published New Moral World and in 1857, his autobiography. His other main works include Observations on the Effect of the Manufacturing System (1815), A New View of Society (1816) and Lectures on an Entire New State of Society (1830). |
