Shakers

Shakers popular name for members of the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, also called the Millennial Church. Members of the movement, who received their name from the trembling produced by religious emotion, were also known as Alethians. The movement originated in a Quaker revival in England in 1747, and was led by James and Jane Wardley. However, the sect, then known as the Shaking Quakers, grew strong only after the appearance of Ann Lee . Imprisoned for her zeal, she believed herself the recipient of the mother element of the spirit of Christ. Following a vision, she and eight followers emigrated (1774) to New York state and in 1776 founded a colony at Watervliet, near Albany. Mother Ann, as she was known, gained a number of converts, who after her death (1784) began the formation of Shaker communities. By 1826 there were 18 Shaker communities in eight states, as far west as Indiana. After 1860, Shakerism began to decline; by 2000 it was almost nonexistent, with a tiny community in New Gloucester, Maine, constituting the only active Shaker village in the country. One of the fundamental doctrines of the society was belief in the dual nature of the Deity. The male principle was incarnated in Jesus; the female principle, in Mother Ann. Other tenets were celibacy, open confession of sins, communal ownership of possessions in the advanced groups, separation from the world, pacifism, equality of the sexes, and consecrated work. Singing, dancing, and marching characterized phases of Shaker worship. The community was organized into groups, called families, of between 30 and 90 individuals. The believers donated their services and possessions but were always free to leave. Shaker furniture and handcrafts are noted for their fine design and crafting.

Bibliography: See E. D. Andrews and F. Andrews, Shaker Furniture (1937, repr. 1964) and The People Called Shakers (2d ed. 1963); J. G. Shea, American Shakers and Their Furniture (1970); H. C. Desroche, The American Shakers (tr. 1971); P. J. Brewer, Shaker Communities, Shaker Lives (1986); S. J. Stein, The Shaker Experience in America (1992); S. Skees, God among the Shakers (1998).

Shakers (Shaking Quakers). Name for members of the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, a religious celibate community founded in the USA after 1774 by Ann Lee (1736–84), formerly of Manchester in Eng. They developed their own hymnology, incl. spirituals and dance, and in the 1840s two tunebooks were pubd. giving details of Shaker mus. theory, notation, and tunes. When a Shaker had a religious seizure which resulted in a hymn or dance-tune, a scribe wrote down the tune in a primitive littoral notation. The words of the songs were sometimes in Eng., at others were nonsense, or derived from Indian or Negro speech. Copland quotes the Shaker tune Simple Gifts in his Appalachian Spring. Shakers are now almost extinct, but their mus. has been collected and is studied.

Shakers (officially United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing) US religious sect. Originally an offshoot of the English Quakers, the nickname derived from the fervour of their religious ceremonies. In 1774, Ann Lee and eight of her followers emigrated to New York. ‘Mother Ann’ believed she was the female reincarnation of Jesus Christ. After her death (1784), the movement spread, and by c.1850 they numbered c.6000 in more than 18 communes. One of the central beliefs of Shakers is the dual (male and female) nature of the Deity. Other tenets include celibacy, sexual equality, pacifism, and the sanctity of labour. They are noted for their crafts.