Early Years.

The Shakers, formally called the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, were a small but prominent religious order whose communitarian lifestyle and practice of celibacy drew both harsh criticism and extensive praise from nineteenth-century Americans. The group was founded in England in the early 1770s by a Quaker named Ann Lee, who concluded after several unsuccessful pregnancies that sexual intercourse was at the root of all sin. Lee and her small group of followers held meetings characterized by trembling, shaking, shouting, and singing, earning them the name "Shaking Quakers," or "Shakers." Faced with persecution in England, the Shakers immigrated to New York in 1774. They acquired some land near Albany, where they lived communally and practiced celibacy. They believed that Christ had returned to earth in spirit to begin the thousand years of peace and harmony known as the millennium. Christ's spirit would come to...