His initial contribution was to teach Greek and German, among other subjects, and to work on the farm. In addition, because of his experience as a clerk in his uncle's general store, he was made a trustee for the property and management of the association and was named secretary-treasurer. Dana remained with the experiment for five years, even after the association--against his and some other members' wishes--reorganized into a phalanx according to the socialistic ideals of Fourier. Dana wrote articles, editorials, reviews, and poetry for the Brook Farm organs, the
Dial and subsequently the
Harbinger; he also became acquainted with Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ralph Waldo Emerson, William Henry Channing, Margaret Fuller, and Horace Greeley.
The vestiges of idealism that remained in Dana in later years seem traceable to his experience with Brook Farm, which bred in him an appreciation for the inherent dignity of manual labor and for the idea of equal pay for equal work and an openness to various religious beliefs. Some writers have commented that Dana's early idealism often seems incongruous in light of his later conservatism; but at least one of his major biographers, James H. Wilson, notes that Dana never spoke unequivocally in support of Brook Farm itself, although he did support the ideals on which it was based.
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