CW: Racism, Slavery
Sometimes God reaches out and shakes a person, telling them, “How about we knock off being evil for a while?” Granted, God lives in the back of their mind, but hey! It happens! And sometimes, in weird ways. And sometimes, you get extremely popular cabinets and brooms out of it. This is part two in our conversation about the Shakers where we talk about how exactly the Shakers were told by God to knock off being evil and the ways their economic impact in their own lives still affect us now.
Here is that autobiography of the Shaker man that I shared in part 1. It’s a great read from the actual time period from a real life Shaker that was part of the movement at its peak.
From the Shaker Heritage Society, this is the story about how the Shakers joined the Underground Railroad.
This link recounts for you the position of African American people inside the Shaker communities. And it includes the story of the two girls, Phoebe and Betty, who were left by their father Prime Lane, and there’s a picture of one of them!
This fascinating article is about two black women who founded a largely black Shaker community as partners. The two have been speculated to have been a celibate lesbian couple. In any case, it’s a really interesting read at the life of the black Shaker community.
This is a list of inventions that came from the Shakers with links to their own Wikipedia page where you can find further resources on the bottom. The Shakers were industrious and efficient, and they impact our modern society still today.
And this is just a link to the Shaker Lemon Pie specifically. Let us know if you bake one!
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