The Shakers Research Paper

The Shakers A utopia is a society that has ideal or perfect qualities for living. A utopian society is a flawless place of impeccable conditions and morals. One of the most successful utopian societies were the Shakers. The Shakers is a Christian community founded in England during the 18th century. The Shakers had the structure to be a utopian society because of their morals of religion and equality, communal living, and hardworking beliefs. The morals of the Shakers were based off of religion. Ann Lee was the leader of the Shakers known as Mother Ann. She was sent to jail for protesting. While she was imprisoned, she had a vision of the second coming of Christ that is regarded as the birth of their movement. This vision made her believe that sex was the root of all evil making celibacy and confession important morals of this society. The Shakers was an egalitarian society. They excepted anyone regardless of their ethnicity or gender which was very unusual during this time period. Mother Ann helped encourage the gender equality. "The belief that God is both mother and father is the theological basis for the Shaker belief in the basic equality of the sexes and has important implications for Shaker organizational structure, which required male and female representatives in key roles." (National Park Service). Due

They lived in communal houses that held about one hundred people. The community meeting-house is where they would worship by dancing in a strange way, which gave them their name. Everyone had a certain position for the dancing and this was done with no talking. The Shakers keep a schedule that includes awakening at dawn, communal meals, long blocks of work time, morning and afternoon prayers and individual free time. People had longs periods of time set aside to work. They believed that God dwelt in the details and quality of their work. Their devotion was put into the commodities they