The most stable and successful of the many communitarian societies established in America in the 18th and 19th century, were the Shakers, formally called as the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, who originated from England. They were renamed because of their trembling and shaking while praying (Bowman, 1995). The Shakers left England and came to America in 1774 to escape persecution in England, and to establish a utopian society (Shaker Heritage Society, 2002). They developed big communities where they were divided into families of about fifty to one hundred people, usually called brothers and sisters. The head of each family were two elders. The lay church officers called deacons helped to sign work within the family (Sammlung, 2001). The Shakers were an individual religious group whose beliefs affected their daily life.
The person who actually found and started the Shaker movement was Ann Lees, often referred to as Mother Ann by her followers (Sammlung, 2001). She was a blacksmith's daughter who worked at the mill in Manchester, England. Ann Lee was not very active in the religious group of Shakers until she experienced several unhappy events -- her father arranged a marriage for her with another blacksmith, Abraham Standley, and her four children all died either at birth or later on during their early years (Shaker Heritage Society, 2000). When she got in prison for refusing to pay tax for something that did not seem right to her, she started to have visions about forming a religious group, and that is when she joined the Shakers and became the leader of that religious group. Her visions she was keep getting during their movement basically founded and set forth the Shaker's beliefs (Bowman, 1995). She had a huge influence on the Shakers, they admired her, and she became the role model of the Shakers. After her death in 1784, the society had a large amount of members, approximately one hundred people, and it was keep growing.
