Rise and Fall of the Shakers

American History Hit

History Hit

America, History

4.3 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 26 March 2026

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, best known as the Shakers, emerged in the UK in the 18th Century. So how is it that the three remaining Shakers are based in the US? How did this religion cross the Atlantic? And where did they get their nickname from?

Don is joined for this episode by Professor Doug Winiarski, professor of Religious Studies at the University of Richmond, and editor of upcoming 'Shakers at the Centre: Manifesting Spirits and Spectacles in 19th Century America'.

Edited by Aidan Lonergan. Produced by Sophie Gee. Senior Producer was Freddy Chick.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Want to explore even more history? Sign up to History Hit, where you will discover history from around the world.
0:07.1	From the American Revolution to prehistoric Scotland, there is plenty to discover. With your subscription, you'll unlock hundreds of hours of exclusive documentaries, with a brand new release every week, exploring everything from the ancient
0:22.4	world to World War II. Just visit history hit.com slash subscribe to bring the past alive.
0:31.6	It is the 1700s in Manchester, England, a northern city whose population has doubled, then doubled again in little more than a century,
0:41.3	transforming from modest market town into the beating heart of the British industrial world.
0:47.3	Here, within the red brick walls of a textile mill, the senses are overwhelmed.
0:52.3	The mechanized motion of power looms, carding engines,
0:57.2	spinning frames, all fills the air, clattering, whirring. Fibers are drawn, twisted to thread,
1:03.8	and thread becomes cloth, all to the steady precautions of wood and iron and stone. Thumping,
1:12.6	spinning, thumping, spinning. Thumping, spinning.
1:14.6	An ocean away in the woods of Niskeune in New York,
1:18.6	the rhythm continues.
1:20.6	But here it is the thumping of feet on wooden floors.
1:24.6	The spinning is bodies turning, worshippers circling, all caught up in an
1:30.3	ecstatic dance of devotion. To trace these rhythms and movements from factory floor to forest clearing,
1:37.3	from England to America, is to follow the extraordinary rise of the Shaker movement.
1:59.4	Hello, all, welcome to this episode of American History Hit. I'm Don Wilde, and glad you're listening. In the early life of the
2:01.7	American Republic, as the new nation crossed from the 18th into the 19th century, an extraordinary
2:06.9	wave of spiritual searching swept the land. It would later be called the Second Great Awakening,
2:12.8	and echoed the first one in the previous century. Out of this fervor emerged new sects, expanding
2:19.6	Protestant denominations, and a remarkable array of reform movements and utopian experiments,
2:26.1	many of them first taking root in the colony, then state of New York. Among them was one community
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