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Author's note from To Live a Truer LifeAll of the people and places mentioned in To Live a Truer Life are real. We have done our best to portray them as accurately as possible, in both the words and the pictures. No effort to re-create the past is ever completely successful, but we trust we have captured something of the spirit of community life. The Hopedale Community was established in 1841 by Adin and Lucy Ballou, Ebenezer and Anna Draper, and others who were interested in developing a new way of living, based on their understanding of the teachings of Jesus and the will of God. They called themselves "Practical Christians" because they intended to put their religion into practice in their daily life. The Practical Christians believed in a radical form of non-violence called Christian Non-Resistance, which rejected not only war and capital punishment, but all authority based on force. Therefore, they did not vote or participate in government, or make use of police or courts. In an era when even short periods of illness or unemployment could leave families destitute, they guaranteed jobs for all able-bodied members, and loving care for those unable to work. At a time when the anti-slavery cause was just beginning to gather momentum, and the women's rights movement still lay in the future, the Hopedale constitution proclaimed that all members "shall stand on a footing of personal equality, irrespective of sex, color, occupation, wealth, rank, or any other natural or adventitious peculiarity." They put their principles to the test by sheltering escaping slaves and by extending their charity even to a burglar who came to rob them. The Hopedale Community lasted for fifteen years, far longer than most experiments of this kind. It came to an end, quite suddenly, in the spring of 1856. Ebenezer Draper's brother George, who had recently joined the community, persuaded his brother to join him in withdrawing their assets from the common treasury, claiming that the community was not using sound accounting practices. Another factor undoubtedly was that an opportunity had recently opened for the brothers to expand their business - but only if they could hire more workers and put more of the profits into the business, instead of into the community. As the brothers owned the majority of the shares, the community collapsed without their support. The Draper Corporation remained a vital presence in the town of Hopedale until the 1970s. The story takes place in the summer of 1855, when our narrator Susan Thwing was eight years old. The Hopedale Penny Post, the living arrangements in the Old House, the community festivals, the encounter with the burglar, and many other details are part of the historical record. Even Susan's voice - cheery, outgoing, proud of her town and eager to share it with others - is not entirely our invention. All of these qualities are to be found in the memoir of her childhood which she wrote when she was in her sixties. Susan lived in Hopedale for the rest of her life. In 1867 she married James Whitney, Adin Ballou performing the ceremony. Susan and James had three children: Mabel; Almon, named for Susan's father; and Anna, named for her sister. In his History of the Town of Milford (Hopedale was part of Milford until 1886), Adin Ballou tells us that the little girl who loved to sing and recite grew up to be "an excellent contralto singer, and is much employed in church choirs, at funerals, and on other occasions." Looking back on the Community in later years, Susan wrote, "Surely they hitched their wagon to a star - and though it fell to earth, it left a pathway so bright that it still points the way to perfection."
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