robert dale owen

English - English

Definition of robert dale owen in English English dictionary

born Nov. 9, 1801, Glasgow, Scot. died June 24, 1877, Lake George, N.Y., U.S. U.S. social reformer. In 1825 he emigrated with his father, Robert Owen, to establish a community at New Harmony, Ind. He edited the local newspaper, the New Harmony Gazette, until 1827, when he became associated with Fanny Wright. The two eventually settled in New York City, where Owen edited the Free Enquirer, and both were active in the Workingmen's Party. Owen returned to New Harmony in 1832. After serving in the Indiana legislature, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives (1843-47), where he introduced a bill establishing the Smithsonian Institution. He later served as U.S. minister to Italy (1855-58). A strong advocate of emancipation, he urged an end to slavery in an 1861 letter to Abraham Lincoln that was said to have influenced the president greatly

Related Terms

Robert Owen

born May 14, 1771, Newtown, Montgomeryshire, Wales died Nov. 17, 1858, Newtown Welsh manufacturer and philanthropist. At his New Lanark cotton mills (Lanarkshire, Scot.), in partnership with Jeremy Bentham, he set up innovative social and industrial welfare programs, including improved housing and schools for young children. In A New View of Society (1813) he contended that character is wholly formed by one's environment. By 1817 his work had evolved into ideas presaging socialism and the cooperative movement, ideas he would spend much of his life preaching. He sponsored several experimental utopian communities of "Owenites" in Britain and the U.S., including one at New Harmony, Ind. (1825-28) where Owen lost some 80% of his fortune all of which proved short-lived. He strongly supported early labour unions, but opposition and repression swiftly dissolved them, and it was two generations before socialism again influenced unionism. He was the father of Robert Dale Owen

Hyphenation

Rob·ert dale Ow·en

Turkish pronunciation

räbırt deyl ōın

Pronunciation

/ˈräbərt ˈdāl ˈōən/ /ˈrɑːbɜrt ˈdeɪl ˈoʊən/