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Draws on oral and written testimony to trace the history and evolution of the Shakers, set within the broader context of American life
In the late eighteenth century a small Shaker community travelled to America under the leadership of ?Mother Ann? Lee. The American communities they founded were based on ideals of pacifism, celibacy and gender equality. The texts included in this edition come from first-hand accounts of life in the Shaker communities during the nineteenth century.
"... an excellent collection of writings covering the period 1774-1854... mostly in print for the first time.... Humez provides excellent and clear introductions, emphasizing the ambiguous role of women."Â -- Library Journal "This very fine book is a valuable contribution to Shaker studies, religious studies, and women's studies." -- Journal of American History "The editor provides insightful commentary, but the power is in the straightforward and powerful words of the women who founded and participated in this most religious American group."Â -- The Bloomsbury Review "Humez's work is a model of revisionist scholarship, critically objective and editorially balanced, and provides a solid in...
The new society that the world awaited might yet be born in the humble guise of a backwoods village. This was the belief shared by the many groups which moved into the American frontier to create experimental communities—communities which they hoped would be models for revolutionary changes in religion, politics, economics, and education in American society. For, as James Madison wrote, the American Republic was "useful in proving things before held impossible." The communitarian ideal had its roots in the radical Protestant sects of the Reformation. Arthur Bestor shows the connection between the "holy commonwealths" of the colonial period and the nonsectarian experiments of the nineteenth...
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