Who were the Shakers

I came across an interesting article in the New Yorker this week. Basically an explaination of how Shaker Art & Crafts developed, the article also investigates the fascinating story of how the Shakers began.

'The Shakers’ early inheritance is English, and began with a strange visionary figure, Ann Lee, born on Leap Day in 1736. She was a woman who, in her lifetime, travelled, so to speak, from the world of E. P. Thompson to the world of William James—from a povertystricken and embattled sectarian North of England millennial religion to the new world of American self-made faith'

read more here