Jennifer Longoria

26 April 2012

The Rise and Fall of Utopia

My previous research post on the Shaker community belief structures and traditions provided the ground work on how this utopian society functioned and grew. However, I did not provide much information on how this society, named one of the most successful utopian societies to date, went from a thriving religion to almost non-existent. I did not provide this information as the initial websites I searched generally did not provide anything of value. I felt that in general I was being told that they were once here and then they were not. No real explanation as to why. After looking through quite a handful of more sites, I still came up with the same answer: they were here and then they were not. It was then that I realized that their numbers did not dwindle because of some major fallout or some big scandal. There are still many practicing Shakers around today. So why did this utopian society fall so much that I did not even recognize it as a religion in and of itself? The answer is simple: the Shaker’s predominant trait, their need for celibacy in order to remain pure and in touch with God, not only is one of the main reasons that helped them become a successful community but also severely cut off any chance that this society had to root itself as a major religion.

               In my previous post I wrote about how the Shakers brought in new members into their group. Per Mother Ann’s teaching, the only way to become close to God is to turn your back on the sins of the flesh. Shakers were expected to remain celibate. Though marriage was not exactly frowned upon, the married couples were expected to live entirely separate lives in order to promote celibacy. As no new members were born, the Shakers essentially relied on their teachings and practices in order to attract new members. They accepted all types of people into their community; the young and old, white or people of color, vagrants or orphans. At their peak around the 19^th century the Shakers were about 6000 members strong. At this time, Mother Ann had already passed on and the Shakers were led by Joseph Meacham and Lucy Wright. Joseph was the leader to establish communal families and villages to house the Shaker community. Any land that a member owned previously and all money they had were forfeited over to the society. As such, the Shakers thrived both financially and through property. As land increased with new members, the Shaker community was able to grow and more villages were formed. At their largest, under Joseph and Lucy’s leadership, the Shakers had about 19 communities ranging from New Hampshire and Massachusetts to Connecticut and Maine. However, by the 1850’s it seemed that the Shakers lost their momentum and their numbers began to decrease. They began to lose many followers and not able to bring as many new recruits to replenish their numbers.

               Again, there is no specific event that caused the decline of the Shakers nor was there one moment in time that clearly signifies when this drastic change occurred. However, through what little information my research produced I feel fairly confident in saying that celibacy was one of the leading reasons the Shakers lost their numbers. Many of the members left the Shakers because they could not remain celibate or wanted marriage as a couple. As the members were not allowed to have their own offspring, the second generation of Shakers came to be any new members that could convert. They were taught the traditions of the religion and were expected to follow. This is very different than being raised from birth in a certain religion. There are many drives within us that are instinctual, one of which is the drive to procreate to pass on our legacies. This instinct is in direct conflict with the Shakers teachings and was the cause of many recruits to leave their Shaker villages. Rather than building a solid foundation from and through birth, providing religion and values from the get-go, the recruits were expected to adopt and adapt to an entirely different way of thinking and living. This proved to be too much for many of the new members who opted to leave. With the turnover rate the Shakers experienced, for every member they gained they lost one as well until there were no longer enough new recruits to take the place of the fallen members and their numbers decreased significantly. There are other reasons to add to the dwindling numbers of the Shakers as well. First, it was said that many of the new recruits after the Shakers lost their moment in the mid 1800’s were those children who were adopted. However, once adoption laws were passed and limited the number of children you could adopt the Shakers could no longer rely too heavily on adoption to recruit new members.  Also, many people were more attracted to the big city lights rather than the simple life of farming the Shakers encouraged. Unable to deal with the simplistic life, many left to seek their own fortunes. 

               Today many of the Shaker communities are now museums housing many of the Shakers influence regarding music, art, and furniture. The only remaining Shaker village today is Sabbathday Lake in Maine which is also a museum as well that provides daily tours to the public. I am not entirely sure of how many Shakers still remain. I have seen some sites that say they are numbered at less than 1000 and there are some that say that there are only about 3-10 members left. Regardless, the Shakers left their mark and can still pop up from time to time in pop culture, museums created in honor, and seeing their simplistic designs in furniture and wood ware. The remaining Shakers today still hold up Mother Ann’s teachings and customs. I wish I could find even more information on this religion so I could have a more comprehensive report. However, I looked through about  8-10 different websites and I felt like I was reading the same 4 paragraphs over and over again each time, only worded slightly differently. I found this to be very frustrating and would strongly encourage anyone who is looking into this community to seek outside sources other than online for more information on this community.