SHAKERS, the name commonly given to a small religious sect existing in the United States. rl he proper or official description of this sect is the united society of believers iu Christ's second appearing; but its members seem to have accepted the designation of Shakers, though it was originally applied to them in ridicule, en account of certain rhythmical movements of the hands and arms which form part of the ceremonial of theif worship. Though the Shaker societies are found only in the United States. their creed had an English origin. The founder of the sect, in whose person they believe that Christ has appeared a second time, was an Englishwoman, named Ann Lee, a native of Manchester, who emigrated to New York with a small band of disciples, shortly before the outbreak of the revolutionary war.
Ann Lee was the daughter of a blacksmith, who lived in Toad lane in Manchester; a very poor man, who gave her no education, and sent her while a mere child to work in a cotton-mill. She seems to have been a violent, hysterical girl, ambitious of notice, and fond of power, and to have always possessed, in virtue of her strong will and vehe ment temper, a great deal of influence over the people around her. She married while very young a blacksmith named Stanley. She had four children, all of whom died in infancy—to this, perhaps, may be ascribed the preference of the celibate to the married life, which she ultimately raised into a part of her religious system. She became one of the earliest believers in a prophetess. who appeared about 100 years ago. in the town of Bolton-on-the-Moors, in Lancashire—a poor woman, named Jane Werdlaw, the wife of a. tailor, who believed she had ” received a call "10 go forth aril testify for the truth. The burden of Jane Wardlaw's message was, that the end of all things was at hand, that Christ was coming to reign upon the earth, and that his second appearance vould be in the form of a woman,, as prefigured in the Psalms. In subordination to this, she took up several of the tenets of the society of Friends, to which she and her husband originally belonged; especially, she raised her voice against war and against profane swearing. Her followers believed that she was filled with the Holy Spirit; they received her utterances as the voice of God; end she acted as if all the powers of earth and heaven had been given into her hands. Ann Lee on her conversion, began to preach the same message in Toad lane and the adjacent streets of Manchester: but she soon Went beyond her teacher and gained the leadership of her co•believers for herself. It happened that she was brought before a magistrate, charged with an obstruction of the streets. cawed by the crowd collected to hear her preach, and she was sent to the Old Bailey prison in When she came out of prison, she gave forth, that one night, a light had shone upon her in her cell: that the Lord Jesus stood before her; nod that lie became one v ith her in form and spirit. Her pretension was, that Christ was come to reign in her person. It was favorably entertained by the followers of Jane NiTardlaw; and they acknowledged her as their head or mother, in place of Jane, whose pretensions had never gone so far. She found, however, that among her neighbors and fellow-workers, her claim to he the bride of the Lamb, the queen described by David in the Psalms. excited only jeering and ridicule, and she received a revelation that sho
should seek in America a home for herself and her few it was in America, that the foundations of Christ's kingdom were to be laid. So she went to New York. accompanied by seven disciples—live males and two females. Her husband also went with her; hut lie scents to have had no faith in her, and lie left her soon after their arrival, in consequence of one of the features then inroduced into her system. This was the practice of celibaey, which she had not previously enforced upon her followers, though she had enjoined it as a duty. Iler teaching was, that men called into grace must live as the angels do, among whom there is no marrying or giving in marriage, that no form of earthly love could be allowed in the Re deemer's kingdom. Finding a populous city unfavorable to her designs, she lenitive:el, with her followers, first to Albany, then far into the wilderness to Nu keonn. and there founded the settlement which still exists, of Water Vliet. It was in the spring of 17t:0 —when she had been three years and a half at Niskenna, looking 'for new believers to come in, but making no attempt to win them—that the first converts joint(' her society. A revival bad taken place at Albany, and bad spread through the surround ing districts; and from Hancock and New Lebanon a deputation was sent to Niskenua, to see what light its inhabitants enjoyed as to the way of salvation. The deputation consisted of Joseph Meacham and Lucy Wright—subsequently the heads of the Shaker society. These persons became believers in Ann Lee; and through their agency outer converts were won, an .1 a Shaker society established at New Lebanon. Toward the close of 1780, the revolutionary war being then in progress, notoriety was given to Ann Lee's pretensions, through an incident seemingly unfavorable. Owing to her British origin, her demmeirtions against war, and her refusal to take the colonial oaths, Ann was imprisoned for some time at Poughkeepsie, on suspicion of being a British spy. Before she was let out of prison, in December, 1780, all the colonies had heard of "the female Christ." In the following year, she started upon a missionary tour through New England and adjacent colonies; she found the people everywhere curious to see her, and she made not a few converts. She did not return to Water Vliet till S.:pt., 17S3; and about a year after, she died. Her death was a surprise to many of tier followers, who believed that she was to live among them forever; but her successors—the Joseph Meacham and Lucy Wright already mentioned—to whom, on her de;d11-lied, she bad made over the headship of the society, were ready with a theory accounting for it. " Mother Ann," they said, could not die, and was not dead, and bad not ceased to live among her people. She had only withdrawn from the common sight ; she was still visi ble to eyes exalted by the gift of grace; site had cast the dress` of flesh, and was now clothed with a glory which concealed her from the world. So it would be with every one of the saints in turn; but the spirit of those who •- passed out of sight" would remain near and be in union with the visible body of believers. This explana• tion was generally nccepted, anti has become a vital part of the Shaker creed.