The Shaping of American Shakerism

Paper Summary:

This paper covers the founding principles of the Shaker society in the late 1700s and how they were influenced by other religious sects, Ann Lee's personal experiences, persecution and religious revivalism during the Great Awakening. It argues that these factors contributed to the formation of the sect and the practices that were adopted until the mid-1850s. It includes quotes from many Shaker texts and was written based on primary sources from the period. Annotated bibliography.

From the Paper:

"The Shakers were just one of many utopian sects that appeared in late eighteenth century America. These groups were unique because their members believed that the essential nature of God's Kingdom had been revealed to them, and that it was their responsibility to establish this Kingdom on earth. Utopian sects have an ambiguous relationship with the external society; since they perceive the world as an environment suited to corrupting individuals and alienating them from God, they sought to isolate themselves from its influence, but also regarded themselves as "divinely commissioned" to spread their perfection . Shakers are in particular a reformist sect, because their early opinions of the world were transformed into a quest to influence the world while still maintaining distance from the surrounding society. In this way, the common Shaker was eventually isolated from the world during the age of the first American leaders, but this process was directly affected by the opening period of Shaker history. In 1787, under the original English elders, Ann Lee, William Lee and James Whittaker, the Shakers' religious ideas, social relations and worship were unorganized and informal. Early Shakers were united by their admiration for Ann Lee and their repugnance of sexuality, and expected the imminent apocalyptic beginning of celibacy throughout the world. When this did not transpire as planned, the hardships and isolation suffered by the group led to a more gradualistic interpretation of the sect's mission. Along with focusing on spreading the gospel, Shakers also sought union and order in the formative period, and by 1826, the sect had been transformed from scattered followers spread across New England and New York into an organized society with unity of doctrines and rituals. Organizing into communities was a gradual process, occurring from the time when Ann Lee's small colony at Niskeyuna first attracted attention in 1780 to the erection of the New Lebanon meetinghouse in 1785."

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