Owen, Robert Dale, 1801–77, American social reformer, b. Scotland; son of Robert Owen Owen, Robert, 1771–1858, British social reformer and socialist, pioneer in the cooperative movement. The son of a saddler, he had little formal education but was a zealous reader.
..... Click the link for more information. . He studied at his father's New Lanark school and in Switzerland. In 1825 he went to New Harmony New Harmony, town (1990 pop. 846), Posey co., SW Ind., on the Wabash River; founded 1814 by the Harmony Society under George Rapp. In 1825 the Harmonists sold their holdings to Robert Owen and moved to Economy, Pa., where their sect survived into the early 1900s.
..... Click the link for more information. , Ind. There he met Frances Wright Wright, Frances (Fanny Wright), 1795–1852, Scottish-American reformer, later known as Mme Darusmont, b. Dundee, Scotland. After her first tour (1818–20) of the United States she wrote an enthusiastic account of her travels,
..... Click the link for more information. , with whom he established (1829) in New York City the Free Enquirer, a paper opposing organized religion and urging wide social changes. In this and in his Moral Physiology (1830) he publicly advocated birth control for the first time in the United States.

Owen later became active in Indiana and U.S. politics. As a member of Congress (1843–47) he was instrumental in the founding of the Smithsonian Institution. When the Indiana constitution was revised in 1850, Owen secured an extension of property rights for married women and state provision for public schools. He served (1853–58) as U.S. minister to Naples, where he became a spiritualist. After his return to the United States he strongly advocated the emancipation of slaves and helped investigate the condition of the freedmen. His writings include An Outline of the System of Education at New Lanark (1824), Hints on Public Architecture (1849), The Wrong of Slavery (1864), The Debatable Land between This World and the Next (1872), a novel, a play, and numerous pamphlets.

Bibliography

See the autobiography of his early years, Threading My Way (1874); biographies by R. W. Leopold (1940, repr. 1969) and E. Pancoast and A. E. Lincoln (1940).

Owen, Robert Dale

(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.