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By Wilma Paterson in Essentially America magazine
Many of us recognize the Shaker look - simple, elegant Shaker furniture has never been more popular or so more widely imitated than it is today - and yet there are only five Shakers left in the world, three men and two women, known as Brothers and Sisters, whose ages range from the thirties to the seventies. They live, work and worship in rural Maine's Shaker Village at Sabbathday Lake, welcoming visitors and praying daily for an increase in their number.
The Sabbathday Lake Community was established in New Gloucester, Maine, in 1783, and its beautiful Meeting House - the village's architectural jewel - was constructed in 1794. Today, the village looks very much as it did two centuries ago, with handsome wooden buildings, gardens, pastures filled with grazing sheep, and an orchard. Although this last-established of the Shaker Communities was one of the poorest, it became the first place in America to propagate and package plants commercially - in the early 1800s it mail-ordered throughout the USA and Canada dozens of varieties of medicinal herbs, roots, barks and vegetable seeds.
The remaining Shakers still maintain a commercial herb garden, drying and packing their culinary herbs in much the same way as they did 200 years ago. You can buy them in the community shop, along with teas, pot-pourris, rosewater, yarn from the Shakers' flock of sheep and traditional Shaker crafts.
A guided tour and a museum provide a fascinating insight into Shaker heritage and the interesting programme of events includes craft workshops and demonstrations, tours of the orchard with its many historic apple varieties, autumn apple pie and cider sales and a Christmas Fair. Visitors are also welcome to join the 10am Sabbath services in the Meeting House. However, they shouldn't expect to see any of the ecstatic shaking, whirling and trembling dancing which gave the dissident 'Shaking Quakers' their name back in the 18th century; shaking and dancing were dropped 100 years ago. You may, however, still hear the simple old Shaker hymns, such as the one Aaron Copland incorporated in Appalachian Spring:
‘Tis the gift to be simple, ‘tis the gift to be free,
‘Tis the gift to come down where you ought to be;
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
‘Twill be in the valley of love and delight.
One of the community's most poignant exhibitions is one dedicated to the Shaker children. Where did they come from, you may wonder, as the Shakers were celibate. The answer is from converts' offspring or from orphanages. These children were given a loving home and an excellent education, including useful skills. When they reached the age of 18, they could choose freely to stay with the Shakers or to go out into the world. Sadly, for the Shakers, a change in US law in the 1960s prohibited further adoption, and there have been no Shaker children at Sabbathday Lake for 40 years.
The story of the Shakers in America began in 1774, when Ann Lee, an illiterate blacksmith's daughter from the slums of Manchester, set sail for New York with her husband Abraham and seven others members of a dissident Anglican sect, who had been persecuted in England for their radical beliefs.
'Mother' Ann, their charismatic leader, had been inspired to emigrate by a vision she had while imprisoned in England. In it she saw a wonderful new society in America, where members would live like angels in a Heaven on Earth, free from war, greed and exploitation. Men and women would co-exist equally, like brothers and sisters, in a celibate community; Mother Ann was convinced that sex was the cause of most of the world's ills, perhaps because all four of her children died before she was 30. Life in America was very hard for British immigrants on the eve of the American Revolution and it was two years before the Shakers were able to set up their first communal home in Watervliet, New York. But from there, communities spread to nine states, including Massachusetts, Kentucky, Ohio and Florida, with the sect reaching a peak of more than 6,000 members.
Pacifists, communists and anti-slavery, they believed in equality of race and sex, the sharing of property and labour, equal opportunities for intellectual and artistic development, and the duality of God, as both male and female. Not surprisingly, they were also persecuted in America.
All Shaker work, whether it was peeling a potato, turning a chair leg or inventing a piece of machinery, was performed as a prayer to glorify God. “Hands to work and hearts to God” was Mother Ann’s motto.
Since the Shaker cabinetmakers and craftsmen didn’t face pressure to produce for worldly gain, they were able to take their time and strive for perfection. The result was simple, graceful and beautifully-crafted Shaker furniture and crafts that are today featured in museums throughout the world and prized by collectors. The Shakers were also enthusiasts for mechanisation and progressive technology, and their inventions included the circular saw (credited to a woman of the Harvard Community), the flat broom, the automatic spring, the first screw propeller, and the first washing machine - still useable in the laundry at Sabbathday Lake. No patents were taken out by Shaker industrial pioneers, who gave up their inventions for the good of all. Needless to say, they were often exploited by unscrupulous more-worldly entrepreneurs.
As communities dwindled and merged, Shaker villages were gradually sold off. Some were taken over by other religious orders, some became state prisons, others museums. Among those that you can visit today are the Hancock Shaker Village in Pittsfield, western Massachusetts, now run as a museum with restored buildings, grounds and gardens, and Canterbury Shaker Village in Canterbury, New Hampshire.
Mother Ann herself prophesied the rise and fall of the Shakers. But, she added, when there are as many Shakers left as there are fingers on a child's hand, there will be a second flowering of the faith. That time has come, and who knows, the Sabbathday Lake Shakers' prayers may be answered.
Shaker village details: Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village, 707 Shaker Road, New Gloucester, Maine, is 25 miles north of Portland, 12 miles west of Lewiston-Auburn, and open from Memorial Day until Columbus Day. There is no restaurant and visitors are asked to respect the privacy and work schedules of the Shaker Community. Tel: 001 (207) 926 4597, e-mail usshakers@aol.com or visit www.shaker.lib.me.us
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