Final answer:
Before the term 'Utopia' represented a perfect society, it referred to Thomas More's work depicting an ideal community with limited private property. Various utopian communities in the 19th-century U.S. sought to perfect society, often focusing on communal living and property.
Step-by-step explanation:
Before the term 'Utopia' came to represent an ideal or perfect society, it was notably used by Thomas More in his work 'Utopia' published in 1516, which depicted an imagined society with communal living and shared wealth, with little private property and mandatory labor on a communal farm.
The concept of utopia predates More, with ancient societies such as Plato's republic and early Christian communities advocating for shared goods and communal living. Throughout the nineteenth century in the United States, over a hundred Utopian communities were established, each striving to create a perfect human society, often featuring the abolition of private property as a core principle. Influenced by various philosophical and religious beliefs, these communities ranged from the intellectual experiment of the Brook Farm, overlapping with the transcendental movement, to the equality and celibacy emphasized by the Shakers, and the economic and social reforms attempted in communities like New Harmony.