Hancock Shaker Village is a National Historic Landmark District in Hancock, Massachusetts that was established by Shakers in 1791. It was the third of nineteen major Shaker villages established between 1783 and 1836 in New York, New England, Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana under the leadership of Joseph Meacham and Lucy Wright.
The Shakers are a religious order who believe in pacifism, celibacy, communal living, and gender equality. In the nineteenth ...
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Hancock Shaker Village is a National Historic Landmark District in Hancock, Massachusetts that was established by Shakers in 1791. It was the third of nineteen major Shaker villages established between 1783 and 1836 in New York, New England, Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana under the leadership of Joseph Meacham and Lucy Wright.
The Shakers are a religious order who believe in pacifism, celibacy, communal living, and gender equality. In the nineteenth century, Shaker worship included singing, shaking, and ecstatic dance, which is why they were called the "Shaking Quakers," or "Shakers." The utopian sect is renowned today for its plain architecture and furniture.
The Hancock community was started in 1783 with the consolidation of land donated by converted farmers, many of them members of the Goodrich family, who were New Light Baptists in the congregation of Valentine Rathbun. Elder Calvin Harlow and Eldress Sarah Harrison were the first leaders of the Hancock Shakers. The group was poor at...
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