‘She was a beacon of light in a dark chapter in history’: Ann Lee, the 1700s Christian leader who shocked America
In 1770, Lee was imprisoned for 30 days in Manchester for disrupting another church service. While incarcerated, Lee had a premonition that celibacy was the key to purity and would become the Shakers’ cornerstone. Four years later, Lee had another premonition that she was to establish the sect in America. On 10 May 1774, Lee and a small group of followers, including her brother, William Lee, and her husband, sailed from Liverpool to New York. Two years later, the Shakers established a community in Niskayuna, near Albany.
Norm-breaking beliefs
When Lee and her supporters arrived in America, which was on the precipice of the Revolutionary War (1775-1783), their staunch pacifist stance soon aroused suspicion and controversy. Lee was accused of being a British spy, and she was imprisoned when she refused to take an oath of loyalty to New York State. Claiming that such an act contradicted her beliefs, Lee spent months in prison, until Governor George Clinton sought her release. Lee and other Shakers were also harassed and attacked by mobs for their beliefs.
Lee died in 1784, 10 years after arriving in America. Some believe injuries she sustained from being beaten contributed to her death. Yet, long after she died, the influence of “Mother Ann”, as she was called by followers, continued to grow. By 1850, there were roughly 5,000 Shakers in the US.
AlamyThe Wardley Society was nicknamed “the Shaking Quakers” for their ecstatic dancing and singing during worship, later known as “The Shakers” (Credit: Alamy)
One of Lee’s defining characteristics was her norm-breaking belief in gender and social equality. “All were seen as brothers and sisters to all,” says Elizabeth De Wolfe, professor of history, University of New England, and author of Shaking the Faith: Women, Family, and Mary M Dyer’s Anti-Shaker Campaign.
