I grew up in South Dakota and had a friend that left a colony. He had a driving interest in all things mechanical, and loved nothing more than to ride a motorcycle on gravel, spinning the rear wheel. His attitude towards life was very matter-of-fact, and he was a very hard worker. Great guy, I’d like to talk with him again some day.

I first learned about the Anabaptists through this episode [1] of Dan Carlin's Hardcore History.

It's not mentioned in the article, but an interesting event in the early history was Anabaptists taking over the city of Munster and forming a sort of commune, later having the city sieged upon [2].

It's a little lengthy, but one of my favorite episodes of a history podcast and definitely worth the listen.

[1] https://www.dancarlin.com/product/hardcore-history-48-prophe...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Münster_rebellion