I want to write about Shaker Heaven, but a little introduction to the Shakers is necessary first.

Click here to jump to Shaker Heaven.

Introduction

The Shakers were a Christian communist cult that started in England in the mid-18^th century and which experienced its heyday in the first half of the 19^th century in the US. They were known for their ecstatic religious services (from which they got the “Shaker” name) and for their craft work.

They did not call themselves Shakers, but rather, the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing. They believed that the founder of their US order (Anne Lee) was the female incarnation of Christ, and their mission was therefore creating Heaven on Earth.

Shakers lived in large dormitories on sprawling campuses. In addition to agriculture, Shakers engaged in wood work and crafts, using state of the art technology. Some of those innovations were Shaker inventions. For example, they developed the technology for water-powered wood-working tools. Their buildings had running water far earlier than the mainstream world.

Gender equality

Gender equality of inherent in the Shaker religion, as it was founded by the female incarnation of Christ. For each position of power, there were male and female leaders. Lucy Wright, a turn-of-the-century Shaker leader, exercised power over both men and women, an unheard of phenomenon at the time.

Labour was nevertheless separated along traditional gender lines: Agricultural and industrial work was done by men, while women performed domestic chores as well as some of the Shaker hallmarks: seed and herbal packaging.

Gender equality inequality

For a 19^th century farm wife, days were long, and work was done either in isolation or with children. Any property she had became the property of her husband. She was expected to be obedient to her husband. Alcohol consumption was quite high among men. This would keep a farm wife’s life spicy in many ways, most of which were undesirable.

A Shaker woman similarly worked long hours, had no property, and was expected to be obedient. However, she had female leaders to obey. Her work was done in the company of other like-minded women. There was no alcoholism. In other words, the Shaker lifestyle was for a woman in most ways better than the life she could expect on the outside. Accordingly, women disproportionately filled Shaker ranks. Women of child-bearing ages outnumbered like-aged men 2 to 1, and often 3 to 1.

Men’s situation was the opposite. They did the same work that men outside the Shaker campuses did. They faced all the same hardships and dangers, without the compensation of property or of a warm shoulder at night.

There is little reported strife in Shaker communities, but most of occurred had to do with resentment of the status of women.

Celibacy

I see the following unsubstantiated entry in my notes, made years ago:

I read that most converts were young women and teen-age girls. I would have expected widows and spinsters, but it was instead those at the height of their attractiveness and options. My hypothesis is this: women at the beginning of the 19^th century would have known quite a lot about domestic and sexual abuse, either as witnesses or victims. Some of them must have recognized celibacy as a way out of that world of torment.

Given that the sisters slept two to a bed, there would have been opportunities for friends to become bedfellows. I can only guess that it was an open secret that celibacy meant abstinence from heterosexual contact. I read that in at least one of the campuses, young women were assigned to multi-generational bedrooms of half-dozen women, and I can imagine this to be an attempt to thwart the natural tendency for sexually active women from testing the definition of celibacy.

Pacifism

The Shakers garnered quite a bit of mistrust through their refusal to take sides in the American Revolutionary War and in the Civil war. They were ultimately granted a federal exemption to military service in 1862, but the PR damage had been done. It was further compounded by the influx of temporary male members during the remainder of the war.

Children

Without children of their own, there was little possibility of transmitting their religion as most religions do — with pants around ankles. The Shakers therefore took in orphans. Shaker education was unparalleled in their time, so even children who had parents could find themselves living on campus. Children lived in facilities separate from the adults (cf Oneida Communities) and lived very regulated lives. However, the Shaker religion precluded meanness. Shaker children were not subject to physical punishment, as was the standard in the outside world. Reportedly, Shaker children were granted plenty of playtime. Despite these childhood advantages, monastic life remained a hard sell to children. Shaker schooling produced few converts among the students. If nothing else, their excellent education promised them great advantages in the outside world. Compare this to the Amish, who stop education at age 14, which leaves their students unprepared for the outside world.

Decline

• Celibacy
• Gender Equality
• Industrial revolution
• creation of secular orphanages
• pacifism
• improvement of public school standards

These factors put the Shaker’s population in decline, such that there are today more Shaker campuses as museums than there are actual Shakers.

Shaker Heaven

The Shakers sought to implement Heaven on Earth, and it is instructive to see what this meant for them.

Work as a Spiritual Practice

Their motto was, “Hands to work and hearts to God.” To make things perfect was to prepare oneself for Heaven and to honour God. Shaker furniture and storage boxes became highly sought after by outsiders for their high quality and precision fittings. The box lids fit as tightly today as they did 200 years ago. Shaker furniture is still in use.

Shaker cooks took it upon themselves to make perfect meals, pouring all their attention and will into a holy endeavor. Unsurprisingly, the Shakers were known to dine exceptionally well.

Cleanliness

All Shaker property was to be kept clean at all times. The women dusted and mopped tirelessly. The grounds were kept prim and proper. They were very much like zen monks in their zeal for simplicity and order.

It is not complexity of thought that gets you into Heaven, it’s purity of thought.

Kindliness

The Shakers were also known for being very kind. For those who were not kind by nature, there was kindness by dictate. Unlike other Christians, they were forbidden to indulge in righteous outrage. Another rejection of mainstream Christianity involved the rejection of corporal punishment on children.

In a Heaven, one’s presence is optional, and therefore no punishment is needed. It is rather in Hell, where no one’s presence is voluntary, that ill-treatment must be polished up and put into imminent service.

Raves

Shakers had religious ceremonies dominated by singing and dancing. In later years, these elements were choreographed, but in the early years, there was a great deal of spontaneous singing and dancing; some people even fell to spasms on the floor. These were signs of connection with the holy spirit or the purging of sin. Some services were no longer than an ordinary religious service. But they did run as long as they needed to. The longest recorded service was 20 hours. One thing is for certain: many Shakers were able to whip themselves up into a delirium and this was the very sauce of the religion; it paid for all other privations.

Teen-age girls were the most ecstatic. Having a demonstrable connection to holy stuff was a badge of honour, so it is understandable that the most powerless segment of the community would reach for what recognition and power it could. Unfortunately, the more sedate leadership saw this as a threat to their own legitimacy and clamped down on these manifestations. The religious services became more organised. Teen-agers who in the past would go on to join the movement as adult members began to wander away. Few of the children who grew up with the Shakers elected to stay with them.

If you are interested in the later-year ceremonies, YouTube has several re-enactments. It is fascinating to see how passionate people can be about a religion not their own. The people who maintain the Shaker museums are not Shakers. The performers are not Shakers. Yet they all feel a need to preserve this way of life in the modern imagination.