Shakers

The Shakers were a sect of Protestant Christians, an offshoot of the Quakers, who lived in communal villages mainly in New England. It is very rare to see them officially referred to as Shakers, but a few documents from the 1790s and early 1800s do use the term.

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History

The group started in England, UK in the 17th Century when Ann Standerin became noisy in church to the disapproval of others. The group were criticised and sometimes prosecuted for tumultuous behavior in religious services but eventually immigrated to the United States after Standerin had a hallucination vision telling her a place was prepared for the Shakers there.[1]

Lively outlet

Shakers were noted for very lively behaviorFile:Wikipedia's W.svg during church services, shaking violently, speaking in tongues, etc. Shakers also believed in total abstinence (even husbands and wives were not allowed to roll in the hay), and this proved a fatal blow to them when adoption laws were changed so that religious organizations could no longer adopt children. To their credit, they brought the rest of us Simple Gifts before dying out.

Communal living

Shakers practised communal living and common ownership - just like godless commies - as the Acts of the Apostles suggests early Christians did[2]:

And all that believed were together, and had all things common; and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. - Acts 2:44-45

They also made a ton of things, being early adherents to the idea that reproducing a successful design for something was a lot easier than reinventing the wheel over and over and over and over and over and over again, and they proved very economically adaptable to the demands of the times; for instance, even though they were a seed-selling powerhouse in northern Connecticut for the first 60+ years of the 19th century, when that market niche became no longer viable after the Civil War they rapidly switched to using dairy products for signature items.

Number remaining

As of 2017 there are only two Shakers left in the world (as well as one currently in the process of becoming a full member), all in Maine.[3][4]

One good point about the Shakers was that they believed in and practiced racial and sexual equality.

gollark: I go around considering the ethics of DC for immersion, mostly, but whatever.
gollark: Especially if you use the actual Kill action.
gollark: Whilst I disagree ethically with zombie production, good luck!
gollark: If anyone has other ideas, they can post them in the thread; it's going up now.
gollark: Hmm.

References
  1. The Shaking Quakers
  2. Shaker
  3. The Shakers, PBS Religion and Ethics News Weekly, 17 September 2010
  4. Jeannine Lauber: Exploring the modern-day Shakers, The Independent
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