The United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, commonly
known as the Shakers, conducted the largest and most successful communal
experiment in American history. While today there is only one active
Shaker community, with three members, at Sabbathday Lake in Maine, at
its height during the mid-nineteenth century, this Protestant sect had
more than six thousand members spread across eighteen communities, from Maine to Kentucky. The largest and most influential community was established at New Lebanon, New York, in 1787 and remained active until 1947.
Shakers first came to America from England in 1774. Led by the prophet Ann Lee, this small and radical group of English Quakers
believed that the millennium—the thousand years of peace with Christ
before the end of the world—was at hand. Known as the Shaking Quakers,
or Shakers, because of their penchant for ecstatic movement and dancing
during worship (a physical response to their sense of being infused with
the spirit of God), these religious dissidents surrendered themselves
to God and emulated Christ’s pure and humble life on earth.
