Pieter Corneliszoon Plockoy, founded a short-lived Dutch communitarian settlement (1663-1664) at Zwaanendael on the banks of the Deleware River. This utopian experiment was obliterated by British troops. After years of obscurity, the visionary Plockhoy, "old, blind and destitute," appeared, with his wife, in Germantown, Pennsylvania. The Mennonite congregation in Germantown took them in and cared for them.

Here are a few quotations and brief snapshots of Plockhoy's life and thought. A longer article by Plantenga was published in the April 2002 issue of Mennonite Historical Bulletin.

"Our rules and Laws being few, are to be only for necessity, not to take away anyone's liberty..." Pieter Plockhoy

"…the real history of intentional community among Euro-Americans begins with one Peter Cornelius Plockhoy, despite his eminent status as communal leader, [he] remains historically obscure."
( Timothy Miller, "Pieter Cornelius Plockhoy and the Beginnings of the American Communal Tradition," Gone to Croatan: Origins of North American Dropout Culture.)

Plockhoy's lodestar was his moral compass - compassion for the poor and the eradication of "the great inequality and disorders among men in the world." This would come about through the creation of a community of equals, a kingdom of God on earth, aimed at eliminating the unjust gap between rich and poor. Call it Christian communitarianism based on Jesus' example, benevolent realpolitik, proto-communism, or social democracy, but he made very interesting stabs at combining utilitarian economics with social ideals, echoing today's social welfare states. Be competitive, not acquisitive; be compassionate, not ruthless. He hoped that the economic success of his enterprise might serve as the best advertisement for his society. Many of his democratic notions presaged the United States Constitution.

Plockhoy also believed true peace came from shunning material things - living a simple life - like the Mennonites, Amish, Quakers, and Shakers. His ideas regarding a "commonwealth of love and equality" can also be found in English utopian John Bellers' work which influenced Marx. Plockhoy may also have helped set the stage for experimental societies like the Oneida Community, Richard Owen's Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers, hippie communes and kibbutzes.

Socialist scholar, H. Quack, considered him the "originator of socialistic and communal views which later led Hawthorne, Thoreau, and Emerson to undertake such a life at Brook Farm," begun in 1841 in Massachusetts. To these ends he proposed the following:

o Anti-Slavery: "No lordship or servile slavery shall burden our company." Plockhoy's anti-slavery declaration preceded by five years the first recognized declaration against slavery by Dutch Quakers in1668 in North America.
o Separation of church and state: the state should enforce religious liberty and foster an ecumenical society.

o Freedom of thought, speech, and religion: an ecumenical umbrella to allow freedom of religious worship although it was assumed all were practicing Christians. Ministers according to Kort Verhael would not be tolerated in the community, which would "suffer all sorts of people (of what religion soever [sic] they are) in any one country, as God suffers the same in all the countries of the world." But some documents of dubious authorship imply that Plockhoy's ecumenical tolerance uncharacteristically stopped at Jews, Quakers, Puritans, and "stupid believers in the millennium."

o Education: free progressive education, offered by honest capable "spiritual captains," would provide "uplift" for all children (rich or poor, girl or boy). All "handicrafters" would be periodically retrained to learn new trades.

o Health care: free for the poor, the sick, and elderly. The wealthy paid a fee for medical assistance.

o Leisure: "personal interests, desires, and pleasures" were left to discretion of individual. Plockhoy believed work was meant for travel and edification, not for wealth.

o Workday: six hours daily six days per week for the commune; any overtime was for one's own gain. Non-members seeking admission worked twelve hours per day until they were allowed entry.

o Charity: The colony was created for "the relief of many aggrieved and languishing families." The wealthy in the colony would display wealth through their extra benevolence toward the poor. Everyone was guaranteed basic needs: shelter, education, food, employment.

o Employment: empower the poor through gainful work. People working for the common good would lead to the end of human exploitation.

o Management: all members had a chance to manage various socio-economic sectors, assuring that members gained a variety of skills. Maids and housewives had their prescribed functions but also time to develop new skills. This promoted division of labor as well as communal values and self-reliance.

o Private property: would be allowed but the commune would own land and industries collectively. Overtime meant discretionary income.

o Communistic Individualism: Although members "shared equally in the labor and its products" he allayed fears that his system would squelch individualism: "the common welfare should be kept in mind without restricting anyone's personal and natural liberty… To suppress the individual by force, as is usually the practise in the world, is according to our opinion merely deferring the larger evil and making it break out more violently." All would benefit from profits equally among settlers. Every six months surpluses were to be equally distributed.

o Competitiveness: Plockhoy was keen to prove that his benevolent system could compete in the world market. Success meant being more enterprising and industriousness. His artisans would produce higher quality goods because of the level of craftsmanship assured by social well-being. He envisioned their products would undersell the competition because of low overhead of their social arrangements.

o Marriage: Marriage outside the community was allowed

o Departures: those leaving would not be punished and received their portion of profits and belongings. If there were no profits they would receive an honorarium.

o Democracy: governor was chosen by settlers for one-year term to prevent corruptibility. He would have three elected administrators to assist him.

o Town Planning: o "meeting-places" with amphitheater seating arrangement and desk tops to write ideas and read and discuss Scripture in an open and egalitarian manner.

o Housing: settlement comprised of two dwellings: one inland for twenty to thirty families engaged in industry and agriculture. Another located near the river where he envisioned fisheries and a fleet of trading vessels "to send to Flanders, Holland, France and other places..." Settlers would live in a mix of private family rooms and public space [library, guestroom, playrooms, and school]. Plockhoy wanted it active and dynamic - open spaces for freedom and convenient for meetings as well as quiet sanctuaries and an area for a market. His ideas for a central kitchen area, central heating and light were important modern contributions.

o Meals: would be communal meaning less energy and time spent building many small fires for heat and cooking.

o Simple life: free of baubles and shows of wealth, or "painful and laboursome inventions" obscured the notions of a good and natural life.
Although there are those who insist it was his religious training as a Mennonite that informed his ideas, Plockhoy himself wrote that religion was an activity "with which in general [I am] not concerned". But, yet, it is undeniable that on some level he was able to subtly synthesize the dynamics of his new found and rational social activism with his religious legacy and require that the pragmatic coexist in harmony with the teachings of Jesus.