| Description |
xiv, 233 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 22 cm |
| Contents |
Introduction: Shakers and Anti-Shakers -- Ch. 1. Conversion, Deconversion and Apostasy -- Ch. 2. The Sympathy and Malice of Mankind -- Ch. 3. The World Worked Up to Some Purpose -- Ch. 4. A Spectacle for Remark -- Ch. 5. In Deep Affliction -- Ch. 6. Notorious Against Them |
| Summary |
"When Mary Marshall Dyer (1780-1867) joined the Shakers in 1813 with her husband and five children, she thought she had found salvation. But two years later, she fled the sect, calling them subversive of Christian morality and a danger to American society. When her husband and the Shaker authorities denied her request for the return of her children. Dyer joined forces with an aggressive anti-Shaker movement - an informal yet effective group linked together by their disdain of Shakerism and their determination to thwart the new faith. Distraught, angry, and alone. Dyer turned her anguish into action and embarked on a fifty-year campaign against the Shakers - and was the centerpiece of the Shakers' counterattack. The American public followed the debate with great interest, not least because it offered titillating details into the mysterious sect, but also because Dyer's experiences reflected profound changes in religion, gender, and family in antebellum America |
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In this study of Dyer and her world. Elizabeth A. De Wolfe suggests that while neither Dyer nor the Shakers would agree, the former, a mother without children and a wife without a husband, and the latter, a celibate communal sect that disavowed the marriage bond, shared similar positions on the margins of antebellum society."--BOOK JACKET |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages [221]-228) and index |
| Subject |
Dyer, Mary M., 1780-
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Shakers -- Biography.
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Shaker women -- Biography.
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| Genre/Form |
Biographies.
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| LC no. |
2002025174 |
| ISBN |
0312295030 hardback |
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