diff --git a/actionpack/lib/action_view/helpers/form_tag_helper.rb b/actionpack/lib/action_view/helpers/form_tag_helper.rb
index 8ab78e7bc6..ca6ba501e2 100644
--- a/actionpack/lib/action_view/helpers/form_tag_helper.rb
+++ b/actionpack/lib/action_view/helpers/form_tag_helper.rb
@@ -231,6 +231,8 @@ module ActionView
       # * <tt>:rows</tt> - Specify the number of rows in the textarea
       # * <tt>:cols</tt> - Specify the number of columns in the textarea
       # * <tt>:disabled</tt> - If set to true, the user will not be able to use this input.
+      # * <tt>:escape</tt> - By default, the contents of the text input are HTML escaped.
+      #   If you need unescaped contents, set this to false.
       # * Any other key creates standard HTML attributes for the tag.
       #
       # ==== Examples
@@ -258,6 +260,9 @@ module ActionView
           options["cols"], options["rows"] = size.split("x") if size.respond_to?(:split)
         end
 
+        escape = options.key?("escape") ? options.delete("escape") : true
+        content = html_escape(content) if escape
+
         content_tag :textarea, content, { "name" => name, "id" => sanitize_to_id(name) }.update(options.stringify_keys)
       end
 
diff --git a/actionpack/test/template/form_tag_helper_test.rb b/actionpack/test/template/form_tag_helper_test.rb
index 09d199b75d..f387123117 100644
--- a/actionpack/test/template/form_tag_helper_test.rb
+++ b/actionpack/test/template/form_tag_helper_test.rb
@@ -159,6 +159,18 @@ class FormTagHelperTest < ActionView::TestCase
     assert_match VALID_HTML_ID, input_elem['id']
   end
 
+  def test_text_area_tag_escape_content
+    actual = text_area_tag "body", "<b>hello world</b>", :size => "20x40"
+    expected = %(<textarea cols="20" id="body" name="body" rows="40">&lt;b&gt;hello world&lt;/b&gt;</textarea>)
+    assert_dom_equal expected, actual
+  end
+
+  def test_text_area_tag_unescaped_content
+    actual = text_area_tag "body", "<b>hello world</b>", :size => "20x40", :escape => false
+    expected = %(<textarea cols="20" id="body" name="body" rows="40"><b>hello world</b></textarea>)
+    assert_dom_equal expected, actual
+  end
+
   def test_text_field_tag
     actual = text_field_tag "title", "Hello!"
     expected = %(<input id="title" name="title" type="text" value="Hello!" />)