How many shakers

It was created by a group of English Quakers and exiled Camisard Protestants who had unsuccessfully fought for their religious freedoms in France before fleeing to England. This violently expressive behavior soon made Shakers unwelcome in England and they migrated to the United States.

There, they lived communally, embracing pacifism, equality of the sexes, and anti-slavery views decades before these were anywhere near the cultural mainstream. Inside Shaker communities, simplicity and hard work reigned. Labor and craftsmanship were seen as ways to worship God , and Shakers became known for producing high-quality furniture, food and household goods.

If the world was to be redeemed and restored to God, the Shakers would accomplish it by the dedicated labor of their hands. They believed that God dwelt in the details of their work and in the quality of their craftsmanship. All their devotion, which no longer went to family or home, was put into what they made. Their villages were meticulously constructed and maintained, their workshops were world renowned for reliable goods, and their gardens provided amply for their own needs, with plenty to spare for the poor.

Shakerism is a system which has a distinct genius, a strong organization, a perfect life of its own, through which it would appear to be helping to shape and guide, in no small measure, the spiritual career of the United States. For more than two hundred years Shakerism ran alongside American history, sometimes heralding things to come, usually reflecting trends, events, and ideals from a slightly different angle. The Shakers arrived in America on the eve of the Revolution, having left England in pursuit of freedom.

They were gathered into order as a practicing religion in , just as the new United States found its form with the drafting of the Constitution. The Shakers were suddenly appreciated as successful communitarians when Americans became interested in communities, as successful utopians when America hosted a hundred utopian experiments, as spiritualists when American parlors filled with mediums and with voices from other worlds.

Dorothy Durgin. Aida Elam. Jessie Evans. Marguerite Frost. Edith Green. Irving Greenwood. Emeline Hart. Rebecca Hathaway. Alice Howland. Ethel Hudson. James Kaime. Emma King. Bertha Lindsay. The Shakers practiced communal living, where all property was shared. For those that were adopted, they were given a choice to either stay within the community or leave when they turned Like the Quakers, the Shakers were pacifists who had advanced notions of gender and racial equality.

The Shakers believed in opportunities for intellectual and artistic development within the Society. Simplicity in dress, speech, and manner were encouraged, as was living in rural colonies away from the corrupting influences of the cities. Like other Utopian societies founded in the18th and19th centuries, the Shakers believed it was possible to form a more perfect society upon earth.

Eventually there were 19 Shaker communities in the Northeast, Ohio, and Kentucky. They referred to those who lived outside their communities as people from "the World. Many outsiders, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, observed their religious practices.

Communities were agriculturally based, and men and women lived, and mostly worked, apart. The community meeting-house was the center of Shaker worship services on Sunday. Spontaneous dancing was part of Shaker worship until the early s, when it was replaced by choreographed dancing.