Ann Lee

"Put your hands to work, and give your hearts to God."
-Ann Lee

Personal Background:• I was born on February 29, 1736 in Manchester, England
• I died on September 8, 1784
• I had no schooling therefore I was illiterate
• My father was an English Blacksmith
• I had five brothers and two sisters
• I married Abraham Standerin and was pregnant eight times however none of my children lived to be older than 6.
• I was the founder of the Shakers
Issues:• I was a strict believer that celibacy and confession of sin are the only true road to salvation
• I taught that trembling represented sins leaving the holy body by the Holy Spirit
• I came to the conclusion that I was Christ’s female counterpart and I was the second coming of Christ
• I believed that men and women should be treated equally and that we should be kept apart in order to prevent any temptation amongst the genders
• During religious worship we danced, shook and talked in tongues
Solutions:• I founded a utopian community that unified men and women
• The Shakers gave everyone a specific job and we all lived a communal life
• We moved to America in 1774 and settled in Albany because God told me, in the form of a tree, that there was a place made for us in America
• My ideas were considered to hostile to some people and I was molested on several occasions as well as abducted.
• I continued to seek for more coverts and was also put into prison

Relationships to others:• I worked with John Hocknell who helped me establish a settlement in Niskeyuna located near Albany


Gumkowski

Ann Lee Stanley

background: 

- I was born on February 29th, 1736 in Manchester, England

- I died on September 8th, 1784 in Watervliet, New York

- I had no formal education

- I was the founder (Mother Ann) of the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing (the Shakers)

issues: 

- pacifism: I advocate complete neutrality during the American and British war, though would feel most comfortable in supporting the American side for their religious freedom
- celibacy: I strongly disagree with the institution of marriage and sex

- racial and gender equality: All men and women are equal regardless of race

solutions: 

- As part of the Shakers, my followers and I believe that I am the second coming of Christ in the female form as I embody the perfect, sinless, holy being in my complete dedication to equality and celibacy.

- We are called Shakers because I believe that shaking and trembling are signs that the Holy Spirit is purifying us by purging the body of sin and evil

- I believe the second coming of Christ is imminent and we must prepare by attacking sin at its roots in society boldly

- My visions and correspondences with God tell me that celibacy and confession are the only ways to true salvation in Christ. 

- "A complete cross against the lusts of generation, added to a full and explicit confession, before witnesses, of all the sins committed under its influence, was the only possible remedy and means of salvation." 

- The Church of England sought to arrest me multiple times, but I escaped persecution in England by coming to America in 1774, settling the Shakers into a strict communal life.

relationships to others: 

- My views on the Temperance movement, transcendentalism, and prison reform are limited due to my time period.

- I support abolition and women's rights.

~ Cando

Adin Ballou

Greetings, my name is Adin Ballou.

• Personal Background:
• I was born April 23, 1803 on a farm in Cumberland, Rhode Island.
• I received no formal education, though I was versed in the Bible.
• Religious views: Unitarian= Universal Salvation for all.
• I created the Hopedale Community in 1840, served as president of the New England Non-resistance Society in 1843,and played a part in the foundation of The Universal Peace Union founded in 1866.

• Issue(s):
• Although I tickered in a variety of reformation issues, I possessed a strong stance on the issues of Abolitionism and Utopian Communities.
• I viewed Abolitionism as a right to a horrid moral division in America. in 1843 I urged Americans to honor the foundations of the country by not being selective or hypocritical in their judgment of whom should be free.
• By 1840, I believed that my Christian views would not allow me to live in a government where inequality and force ruled the poulace...a utopian community must be established away from the U.S. government.
• My religion pushed me onward towards creating perfection in society.

• Solution(s):
• I advocated the individual moral reform of Americans in order for the eventual equality that would flourish once bigotry passed. But, alas! For myself and many others the only way to reform ourselves in America was to form a community seperate from this nation's government.
• In 1830, quarrels between Restorationists and Universalists led to my decision to stand by my views as a Restorationist. My "radical views" later cost me my pulpit in Milford,Massachusetts. I also published Christian non-Resistance in 1846 on my beliefs on pacifism that I stood by ,and beseeched others to as well, through the Civil War. Until 1880 I was a pastor in the Hopedale community until retirement.

Relationship To Others: ( Friend of William Garrison)

• Temperance: Individuals must act as a single unit to resolve the issue, and not as scattered individuals.
• Abolition: Americans can agree on the principles of their founding fathers, but do not have to disregard the rights that every man in this country is entitiled to.
• Women's Rights: In regards to the universal salvation of my religion women have that privilege as well.
• Education: If the government can resolve its inequality in the scope of capitalism, education would be equal for all Americans.
• Prison Reform: As I've stated before, all men will recieve equal salvation in the afterlife, and this life if the government and its people can accept that truth.
• Utopian Communities: A necessity for those who do not wish to engage in senseless force, nor degrade themselves with the govenrment's unfair social establishements.
• Transcendentalism: In the 1830's and 1840's several protests and boughts of criticism have been aimed at the Unitarian doctrine. This is merely a small part of the Transcendentalists protest against the state of our culture and society as a whole. While I support this awareness I do not support the attack on the Unitarian doctrine in every view it contains.

Matos