Shakers

Mother Ann Lee (1736 –1784) was the leader of the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, or Shakers. In 1774 she and a small group of her followers emigrated from England to New York. They worshiped by ecstatic dancing or "shaking", which dubbed them as the Shakers.
Beginning during her youth, Ann Lee was uncomfortable with sexuality, especially her own. This repulsion towards sexual activity continued and manifested itself most poignantly in her repeated attempts to avoid marriage and remain single. Eventually her father forced her to marry Abraham Stanley. Her difficult pregnancies and the loss of eight children were traumatic experiences that contributed to Ann Lee’s dislike of sexual relations. Lee developed radical religious convictions that advocated celibacy and the abandonment of marriage, as well as the importance of pursuing perfection in every facet of life.
In England, Ann Lee rose to prominence by urging other believers to preach more publicly concerning the imminent second coming, and to attack sin more boldly and unconventionally. She spoke of visions and messages from God, claiming that she had received a vision from God the message that celibacy and confession of sin are the only true road to salvation, the only way in which the Kingdom of God could be established on the earth. She was frequently imprisoned for breaking the Sabbath by dancing and shouting, and for blasphemy.
Lee often was characterized as a virago (a woman with masculine, domineering attributes), possibly because most English and Americans could not accept her ideals of gender equality, or possibly because she was extraordinarily outspoken.
Ann Lee recognized how revolutionary her ideas were when she said, "We [the Shakers] are the people who turned the world upside down." Lee was also neutral during the American Revolution. Maintaining the position that they were pacifists, Ann Lee and her followers did not side with either the British or the colonists.
The followers of Mother Ann came to believe that she embodied all the perfections of God in female form. The fact that Ann Lee considered herself to be Christ’s female counterpart was unique. She preached that sinfulness could be avoided by not only treating men and women equally, but also by keeping them separated so as to prevent any sort of temptation leading to impure acts. Celibacy and confession of sin were essential for salvation.
The Shakers were sometimes met by violent mobs and Ann Lee suffered violence at their hands more than once. Because of these hardships Mother Ann became quite frail; she died on 8 September 1784, at the age of 48.
The Shakers came under a spiritual revival called the Era of Manifestations, which lasted from 1837 to 1853. It was marked by visions and ecstatic experiences among the followers. Shakers in New Lebanon, New York experienced a 10-year period of revelations in 1837 called the "Era of Manifestations". It was also referred to as "Mother Ann's Work".

According to Shaker tradition, heavenly spirits came to earth, bringing visions, often giving them to young Shaker women, who danced, whirled, spoke in tongues, and interpreted these visions through their drawings and dancing.
While the Era of Manifestations strengthened the spiritual roots and bonds of the Shakers, several of the leaders of this movement later left the Shakers.
As pacifiists,the Shakers did not believe that it was acceptable to kill or harm others, even in time of war. President Lincoln exempted Shaker males from military service, and they became some of the first conscientious objectors in American history. The end of the Civil War brought large changes to the Shaker communities.
The Shakers had a hard time competing in the industrialized economy that followed the Civil War. With prosperity falling, converts were hard to come by. By the early 20th century the once numerous Shaker communities were failing and closing.
Shakerism is not, as many would claim, an anachronism; nor can it be dismissed as the final sad flowering of 19th century liberal utopian fervor. Shakerism has a message for this present age–a message as valid today as when it was first expressed. It teaches above all else that God is Love and that our most solemn duty is to show forth that God who is love in the World.