Customer Reviews

Growing up Shaker

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This is a short autobiography written by a woman who came to live with the Shaker's in the late 1930's as a child because her mother could no longer care for her. When she was older she decided to officially become a shaker and eventually became head of the Shaker community in Sabbathday Lake where she was raised. The book was written in 1995.

I've read a little about how their religion came to be in 1794 and what their early way of life (before the Civil War) was like. By the 1930's their standard of dress had changed as well as how strict they were in certain aspects of their lives. They were never against technology; they always sought new ways to improve their daily work and were allowed to watch movies, read, take pictures, use the telephone, etc.

I was hoping for some insight into their religious beliefs, which is why I bought the book, but there was barely a hint of that. This book is mainly about the author's life in the Children's House, the friends she made, going to school and the work that she was involved in. She also wrote a chapter on how WWII affected their community.