The Shakers were a group of utopia seekers (heaven on earth) who were the byproduct of religious persecution.  Their story goes back to the Camisards, French Protestants, living in the Cevennes mountains of France who preached the imminent second coming of Christ.  In 1665, the Edict of Nantes was revoked which took away the Camisards right to worship in public.  As a result, more than 200,000 of them fled to England.  Descendants of these Camisards who had settled in Manchester met and influenced the leaders of a Quaker revival there, Jane and James Wardley.  The Wardleys held revival meetings which were known in town as “Shaking Quaker” meetings because of the fervor the attendees exhibited during worship.  In 1758, Ann Lee, an illiterate 23-year-old daughter of a laborer, began attending these meetings and quickly rose in prominence.  In 1762, she married Abraham Standerin and over the next 4 years gave birth to 4 children who all died in infancy or as young children.  All through the early 1770s, members of the Shaking Quakers faced persecution and were arrested and imprisoned, typically for disturbing the peace.  During one such prison stay, Ann had visions about the future path of the Shakers.  Upon her release, Jane and James Wardley became convinced of the truth of the visions, and together they founded the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, otherwise known as the Shakers.  In 1774, in the face of continued persecution, Ann and eight of her followers set sail for America to live a “moral” life. 

​

After a difficult voyage, the group separated to find employment and Ann’s husband promptly abandoned her.  The group learned of 200 acres of swampy forest outside Albany, NY, known by the Indian name Niskeyuna (later called Watervliet) which they purchased, reunited and settled. The group spent the first few years fighting for survival.  Mother Ann, as she became known, stayed optimistic and kept the group together, preaching of the multitudes that would soon join them.  With the Revolutionary War came opportunity.  America was seeing a strong New Light Baptist revival as well as revivals other groups of separatists.  The Shakers began to attract members to its simple existence of work and worship, which they viewed as one and the same, as well as to its tenets of pacifism and separation from the world.  Mother Ann viewed greed and sex as the root of most of man’s sins (the latter possibly as a result of her miscarriages), and as a result also adopted celibacy, confession of sin, and communal living for the group.

​

In further pursuit of the philosophies of Mother Ann, the Shakers’ system also included equal rights for all regardless of sex or race.  This was later reflected in the governance structure adopted by Mother Ann’s successor.  Mother Ann also preached a commitment to the prevention of illness to attain good health and a long life.  This fueled the Shakers’ commitment to cleanliness, order and simple habits.

​

In addition to the revival meetings held at the community in Watervliet (1787-1938), they began to hold additional revival meetings in New Lebanon, NY (1787-1947, renamed Mount Lebanon in 1861). Local families were attracted to their cause and spread the word throughout New England.  In May 1781, Mother Ann and her brother William left Watervliet for a 2-year-and-4-month missionary trip to New England and visited her new followers, sowing the seeds for the colonies of Hancock (1790-1960), Harvard (1791-1918), Tyringham (1792-1875) and Shirley (1793-1909) Massachusetts; Enfield, Connecticut (1792-1917); Canterbury (1792-1992) and Enfield (1793-1923), New Hampshire; and Alfred (1793-1931) and Sabbathday Lake, Maine (1794-present).  However, these growing numbers also brought additional scrutiny and persecution to the Shakers because of their unconventional ways which did not fit into their newly adopted homeland.  The group’s roots in England and the mistrust of the English because of the war only made things more difficult. 

​

Mother Ann died in 1784 at the age of 48 soon after her return to Watervliet.  She was succeeded at first by “Father” James Whittaker who died less than 3 years thereafter.  James Meacham, a Baptist minister who Ann had met in Enfield, CT, and who established the colony there, succeeded Father James.  James Meacham appointed Lucy Wright to lead the women, forming a dual leadership structure based on sexual equality and in following with Mother Ann’s teachings that God was both male and female.

​

Converts came from all over New England to New Lebanon, which had replaced Watervliet as the main home of the Shakers, to live the communal life of the Shakers.  They were poor farmers, merchants, tradesman and laborers, young, old, black, white, individuals and entire families.  Their days were filled mostly with domestic and religious activities and the manufacturing of products in cottage industries for their own use and for sale to the outside world.  By 1800, there were approximately 1,000 followers across the 11 colonies.

​

Meacham and Wright were able administrators.  They drew up a system of church law and government which became known as the Millenial Laws of the United Society.   The communities were organized into families, each of which signified a certain commitment to the faith.  Spiritual matters were the province of Elders and Eldresses, while manufacturing and industry matters were in the hands of Deacons and Deaconesses.  Business dealings were the responsibility of family trustees.  Meacham and Wright also modified some excesses of worship and established the “order of trades,” whereby each community focused on the production of certain goods to be sold to the outside world. All of this helped improve the Shakers’ relations with the outside world.  In addition, the Shakers were law abiding, faithful taxpayers, skilled craftsman, honest in their dealings with the outside world, and kept their communities and dwellings clean and respectable.  They were benevolent and kind, providing relief to the local poor and supporting local improvements.  They made up for their commitment to celibacy by taking in orphans and providing them room and board, education and teaching them a craft.    

​

The Shakers were also responsible for many industries and time-saving inventions. They started selling seeds in 1790 and were responsible for the birth of the industry around 1795, as family gardens became popular fueled partly by their invention of paper seed packets with colorful packaging.  This expanded to the sale of herbs, ointments and medicines.  In 1798, a Watervliet member invented the “flat” broom and many of the communities raised broom corn and manufactured and sold brooms and brushes of many shapes and sizes.  Oval-shaped bentwood boxes became an important industry as well.  In later years, the Shakers were at the forefront of the furniture and catalogue industry issuing their first chair catalogue in 1874, almost 20 years prior to Sears & Roebuck.  The clothespin and washing machine were both inventions of the Shakers.

Over time, opinions changed further and the Shakers began to be admired for their honesty, dependability, quality of workmanship, inventiveness and business acumen.  The movement spread westward and seven more communities were established in Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana, as well as an additional colony in New York.  At its peak, just prior to the Civil War, there were 18 branches and almost 6,000 followers

​

After the Civil War and the Industrial Revolution, the Shakers saw a decline in converts as the improved economy provided job opportunities to those that may have otherwise joined.  Add to this their commitment to celibacy, a natural decline in religious fervor, and the formation of government regulation of care and education of orphans and it was Inevitably that the Shakers’ numbers began to decline. Today there is only one active colony in Sabbathday Lake, Maine.  I believe there are one or two actual believers still living there.

​

As for Shakers and their simple and elegant chairs, which is what first interested me in their origin, much more can and has been said in a multitude of books and scholarly articles.  For purposes of this article and our love of Shaker furniture, suffice it to say that the Shakers never intended to make beautiful furniture.  They were simple and practical people that didn’t value beauty or adornments in that way.  They tried to make chairs that were practical and efficient (lightweight so they could be easily moved for cleaning and so that minimal amounts of materials would be used in their production) with honesty of craftsmanship (by which they expressed the sincerity of their faith) and in this beauty of spirit created things that were beautiful.

​

Follow our blog as we continue to learn more about the Shakers.

​

Sources: John Kassay, The Book of Shaker Furniture (University of Massachusetts Press, 1980);  Charles R. Muller and Timothy D. Rieman, The Shaker Chair (The Canal Press, 1984);  Timothy D. Reiman and Jean M. Burks, The Shaker Furniture Book (Schiffer Publishing, 2005); Edward Deming Andrews, The Shakers in New England (New England Galaxy, 1960)