According to Britannica Online, Icaraia was "an ideal socialist community as envisioned by French socialist Etienne Cabet. After a career as a teacher, lawyer, revolutionist, and political exile, Cabet published a novel, Voyage en Icarie (1840), setting for his theories on the ideal community. Seeking to put his ideas into practice, he and several hundred followers landed in New Orleans in 1848 and 1849. He purchased the old Mormon settlement at Nauvoo and led 280 settlers there to start Icaria. The settlement was at best a compromise, for Cabet was unable to put many of his ideas into practice."
Last modified October 1993