Shakers as Feminists? Shakerism as a vanguard in the Antebellum American Search for Female Autonomy and Independence

Alison Newby

Research output: Chapter in Book/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

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Abstract

The Shakers are a small communitarian and mystical sect barely clinging onto existence today, which flourished at its heyday in the USA from the 1770s to the 1890s. However, the cultural significance of the Shakers has always far outweighed their numerical strength. They profoundly influenced social, political and artistic thought through their simple but harmonious music, architecture and furnishings. The book Locating the Shakers. Cultural Origins and Legacies of an American Religious Movement assesses that influence through publishing the proceedings of a specialist conference on the subject held at the University of Exeter. My contribution "Shakers as Feminists? Shakerism as a Vanguard in the Antebellum American Search for Female Autonomy and Independence" explores the particular approaches taken by this communitarian group to the interrelations between the sexes by focusing on the context of wider trends which took shape in nineteenth-century America.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationLocating the Shakers. Cultural Origins and Legacies of an American Religious Movement
EditorsMick Gidley, Kate Bowles
Place of PublicationExeter
PublisherUniversity of Exeter Press
Pages96-105
Number of pages10
ISBN (Print)978-0859893510
Publication statusPublished - 1990

Publication series

NameExeter Studies in American and Commonwealth Arts
PublisherUniversity of Exeter Press
Volume3

Keywords

  • Shakers
  • Religious history
  • American religious history
  • Feminism
  • American feminism
  • American religious sects
  • American utopian communities
  • Communitarianism

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