Different People, the Shakers

There was a 17th-century sect of English dissenters called "The Shakers".This name was given to them because it was meant to mock them, by calling them "Shaking Quakers" but it also described the way they trembled, danced, shook, shouted, sang, and spoke in strange tongues, or unknown languages when they prayed.

The formal name of this Protestant religion group was "The United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing". It is said, the group started in 1706 with a group of five French men who were predicting Armageddon and the end of the world and that it moved to England.

A second group came into being in about 1772 and was located in Manchester England. They came to the United States in 1774 for religious tolerance and a woman known as Mother Ann Lee organized and moved nine people to New York where they formed a communal life style and began to thrive. Here they managed to attract some 200,000 people. They built nineteen different settlements along the eastern United States during the next century.

Unfortunately many of these followers left the villages. By 1850 there were approximately only 6,000 members left. Some of those were orphans who had no other home to go to, but some stayed because they believed in and loved the simple life offered there.

They were devotion to the practice of celibacy so they divided the people into groups called families. Each family was divided. All the men lived and did their work separated from the woman of the community. They even used different doors, stairs, and sat on different sides of the room when they had meetings in order to remain pure. This kept the temptation away from them but it also led to the extinction of their sect by the 20th century. They never forbid marriage but did not approve of it as they thought that only celibate people could be in a perfect state to receive Christ. There were no descendants to carry on their religion because of this stipulation.

They became renowned for their craftsmanship of handmade, durable, functional styled furniture. Building straight chair and tables of extra good quality was their trademark. They sold seeds and herbs grown in their gardens too. While the woman all knitted or wove fabrics for clothing and linens of extremely rare quality. They believe in hard work which kept them very busy and each one had their own individual chores.

You could recognize the woman by their kerchiefs and a cap while the men all wore long hair with straight cut bangs.

Only a handful of Shakers remain alive today and they live in Maine. However there are Shaker museums devoted to their life style in Kentucky and Massachusetts.