divine and heavenly witnesses to the sacred truth and reality of the
declarations and revelations contained in the work. The most of these
were given before the inspired writers who received them had any earthly
knowledge concerning the book or its contents. A _testimony_ is also
affixed to the work by the elders of the family in which the inspired
writer resides, bearing witness to the honesty and uprightness of her
character, and her faithfulness in the work of God."
The main object of the book is to warn sinners of all kinds from the
"wrath to come." Especial woes, by the way, are denounced against
slaveholders and slave traders: "Whether they be clothed in tenements of
clay, or whether they be stripped of their earthly tabernacles, the same
hand of Justice shall meet them whithersoever they flee." It must be
remembered to the honor of the Shakers that they have always and every
where consistently opposed human slavery.
The "Divine Book of Holy Wisdom" contains the "testimonies" of the
"first man, Adam," of the "first woman, Eve," of Noah and all the
patriarchs, and of a great many other ancient worthies; but, alas! what
they have to say is not new, and of no interest to the unregenerate
reader.
These two volumes are not now, as formerly, held in honor by the
Shakers. One of their elders declared to me that I ought never to have
seen them, and that their best use was to burn them. But I found them on
the table of the visitors' room in one or two of the Western societies,
and I suppose they are still believed in by some of the people.
At this day most (but not all) of the Shaker people are sincere
believers in what is commonly called Spiritualism. At a Shaker funeral I
have heard what purported to be a message from the spirit whose body was
lying in the coffin in the adjoining hall. In one of the societies it is
believed that a magnificent spiritual city, densely inhabited, and
filled with palaces and fine residences, lies upon their domain, and at
but a little distance from the terrestrial buildings of the Church
family; and frequent communications come from this spirit city to their
neighbors. "When I was a little girl, I desired very much to have a hymn
sent through me to the family from the spirit-land; and after waiting
and wishing for a long time, one day when I was little expecting it, as
I was walking about, a hymn came to me thus, to my inexpressible
delight"--so said a Shaker eldress to me in all seriousness. "We have
frequently been visited by a tribe of Indians (spirits of Indians), who
used to live in this country, and whose spirits still come back here
occasionally," said another Shaker sister to me.
On the other hand, when I asked one of the elders how far he believed
that their hymns are inspired, he asked me whether it did not happen
that I wrote with greater facility at one time than at another; and when
I replied in the affirmative, he said, "In that case I should say you
were inspired when your words come readily, and to that degree I suppose
our hymn-writers are inspired. They have thought about the subject, and
the words at last come to them."
I think I have before said that the Shakers do not attempt to suppress
discussion of the relations of the sexes; they do not pretend that their
celibate life is without hardships or difficulties; but they boldly
assert that they have chosen the better life, and defend their position
with not a little skill against all attacks. A good many years ago Miss
Charlotte Cushman, after a visit to Watervliet, wrote the following
lines, which were published in the _Knickerbocker Magazine_:
"Mysterious worshipers!
Are you indeed the things you seem to be,
Of earth--yet of its iron influence free--From all that stirs
Our being's pulse, and gives to fleeting life
What well the Hun has termed 'the rapture of the strife.'
"Are the gay visions gone,
Those day-dreams of the mind, by fate there flung,
And the fair hopes to which the soul once clung, And battled on;
Have ye outlived them? All that must have sprung,
And quicken'd into life, when ye were young?
"Does memory never roam
To ties that, grown with years, ye idly sever,
To the old haunts that ye have left forever--Your early homes?
Your ancient creed, once faith's sustaining lever,
The loved who erst prayed with you--now may never?
"Has not ambition's paean
Some power within your hearts to wake anew
To deeds of higher emprise--worthier you, Ye monkish men,
Than may be reaped from fields? Do ye not rue
The drone-like course of life ye now pursue?
"The camp--the council--all
That woos the soldier to the field of fame--
That gives the sage his meed--the bard his name And coronal--
Bidding a people's voice their praise proclaim;
Can ye forego the strife, nor own your shame?
"Have ye forgot your youth,
When expectation soared on pinions high,
And hope shone out on boyhood's cloudless sky, Seeming all truth--
When all looked fair to fancy's ardent eye,
And pleasure wore an air of sorcery?
"You, too! What early blight
Has withered your fond hopes, that ye thus stand,
A group of sisters, 'mong this monkish band? Ye creatures bright!
Has sorrow scored your brows with demon hand,
Or o'er your hopes passed treachery's burning brand?
"Ye would have graced right well
The bridal scene, the banquet, or the bowers
Where mirth and revelry usurp the hours--Where, like a spell,
Beauty is sovereign--where man owns its powers,
And woman's tread is o'er a path of flowers.
"Yet seem ye not as those
Within whose bosoms memories vigils keep:
Beneath your drooping lids no passions sleep; And your pale brows
Bear not the tracery of emotion deep--
Ye seem too cold and passionless to weep!"
A "Shaker Girl," in one of the Kentucky societies, published soon
afterward the following "Answer to Charlotte Cushman," which is
certainly not without spirit:
"We are, indeed, the things we seem to be,
Of earth, and from its iron influence free:
For we are they, or halt, or lame, or dumb,
'On whom the ends of this vain world are come.'
"We have outlived those day-dreams of the mind--
Those flattering phantoms which so many bind;
All man-made creeds (your 'faith's sustaining lever')
We have forsaken, and have left forever!
"To plainly tell the truth, we do not rue
The sober, godly course that we pursue;
But 'tis not we who live the dronish lives,
But those who have their husbands or their wives!
But if by drones you mean they're lazy men,
Then, Charlotte Cushman, take it back again;
For one, with half an eye, or half a mind,
Can there see industry and wealth combined.
"If camps and councils--soldiers' 'fields of fame'--
Or yet a people's praise or people's blame,
Is all that gives the sage or bard his name,
We can 'forego the strife, nor own our shame'
What great temptations you hold up to view
For men of sense or reason to pursue!
The praise of mortals!--what can it avail,
When all their boasted language has to fail?
And 'sorrow hath not scored with demon hand,'
Nor 'o'er our hopes pass'd treachery's burning brand;'
But where the sorrows and the treachery are,
I think may easily be made appear.
In 'bridal scenes,' in 'banquets and in bowers!'
'Mid revelry and variegated flowers,
Is where your mother Eve first felt their powers.
The 'bridal scenes,' you say, 'we'd grace right well!'
'Lang syne' there our first parents blindly fell!--
The bridal scene! Is this your end and aim?
And can you this pursue, 'nor own your shame?'
If so--weak, pithy, superficial thing--
Drink, silent drink the sick hymeneal spring.
'The bridal scene! the banquet or the bowers,
Or woman's [bed of thorns, or] path of flowers,'
Can't all persuade our souls to turn aside
To live in filthy lust or cruel pride.
Alas! your path of flowers will disappear;
E'en now a thousand thorns are pointed near;
Ah! here you find 'base treachery's burning brand,'
And sorrows score the heart, nor spare the hand;
But here 'Beauty's sovereign'--so say you--
A thing that in one hour may lose its hue--
It lies upon the surface of the skin--
Aye, Beauty's self was never worth a pin;
But still it suits the superficial mind--
The slight observer of the human kind;
The airy, fleety, vain, and hollow thing,
That only feeds on wily flattering.
'Man owns its powers?' And what will not man own
To gain his end--to captivate--dethrone?
The truth is this, whatever he may feign,
You'll find your greatest loss his greatest gain;
For like the bee, he will improve the hour,
And all day long he'll hunt from flower to flower,
And when he sips the sweetness all away,
For aught he cares, the flowers may all decay.
But here, each other's virtues we partake,
Where men and women all their ills forsake:
True virtue spreads her bright angelic wing,
While saints and seraphs praise the Almighty King.
And when the matter's rightly understood,
You'll find we labor for each other's good;
This, Charlotte Cushman, truly is our aim--
Can you forego this strife, 'nor own your shame?'
Now if you would receive a modest hint,
You'd surely keep your name at least from print,
Nor have it hoisted, handled round and round,
And echoed o'er the earth from mound to mound,
As the great advocate of ------ (Oh, the name!).
Now can you think of this, 'nor own your shame?'
But, Charlotte, learn to take a deeper view
Of what your neighbors say or neighbors do;
And when some flattering knaves around you tread,
Just think of what a SHAKER GIRL has said."
The _Shaker and Shakeress_, a monthly journal, edited by Elder
Frederick Evans and Eldress Antoinette Doolittle, is the organ of the
society; and in its pages their views are set forth with much shrewdness
and ability. It is not so generally interesting a journal as the
_Oneida Circular_, the organ of the Perfectionists, because the
Shakers concern themselves almost exclusively with religious matters, and
give in their paper but few details of their daily and practical life.
POPULATION RETURNS OF THE SHAKER SOCIETIES.
I give here, in a convenient tabular form, figures showing the present
and past numbers of the different Shaker Societies--males, females, and
children--the amount of land each society owns, and the number of
laborers, not members, it employs:
______________________________________________________________________
| |No. of Families| Adults. |Youth Under 11.|
| Society. | or Separate |______|________|_______|_______|
| | Communities. | Male.| Female.| Male. |Female.|
|____________________|_______________|______|___ ____|_______|_______|
| Alfred, Me.........| 2 | 20 | 30 | 8 | 12 |
| New Gloucester, Me.| 2 | 20 | 36 | 4 | 10 |
| Canterbury, N.H....| 3 | 35 | 70 | 14 | 26 |
| Enfield, N.H.......| 3 | 29 | 76 | 8 | 27 |
| Enfield, Conn......| 4 | 24 | 48 | 18 | 25 |
| Harvard, Mass......| 4 | 17 | 57 | 4 | 12 |
| Shirley, Mass......| 2 | 6 | 30 | 4 | 8 |
| Hancock, Mass......| 3 | 23 | 42 | 13 | 20 |
| Tyringham, Mass....| 1 | 6 | 11 | 0 | 0 |
| Mount Lebanon, N.Y.| 7 | 115 | 221 | 21 | 26 |
| Watervliet, N.Y....| 4 | 75 | 100 | 20 | 40 |
| Groveland, N.Y.....| 2 | 18 | 30 | 3 | 6 |
| North Union, O.....| 3 | 41 | 44 | 6 | 11 |
| Union Village, O...| 4 | 75 | 92 | 20 | 28 |
| Watervliet, O......| 2 | 16 | 32 | 3 | 4 |
| White Water, O.....| 3 | 34 | 51 | 6 | 9 |
| Pleasant Hill, Ky..| 5 | 56 | 114 | 25 | 50 |
| South Union, Ky....| 4 | 85 | 105 | 15 | 25 |
|____________________|_______________|______|_______ |_______|_______|
| | | | | |
| Eighteen Societies.| 58 | 695 | 1189 | 192 | 339 |
|____________________|_______________|______|________|_______|_______|
______________________________________________________________________
| | | | Acres | |
| Society. |Total Population,| Greatest | of | Hired |
| |1874.| 1823. |Population.| Land. |Laborers.|
|____________________|_____|___________|___________|________|_________|
| | | | | | |
| Alfred, Me.........| 70 | 200 | 200 | 1100 | 15-20 |
| New Gloucester, Me.| 70 | 150 | 150 | 2000 | 15-20 |
| Canterbury, N.H....| 145 | 200 | 300 | 3000 | 6 |
| Enfield, N.H.......| 140 | 200 | 330 | 3000 | 20-35 |
| Enfield, Conn......| 115 | 200 | 200 | 3300 | 15 |
| Harvard, Mass......| 90 | 200 | 200 | 1800 | 16 |
| Shirley, Mass......| 48 | 150 | 150 | 2000 | 10 |
| Hancock, Mass......| 98 | -- | 300 | 3500 | 25 |
| Tyringham, Mass....| 17 | -- | -- | 1000 | 6 |
| Mount Lebanon, N.Y.| 383 | 500-600 | 600 | 3000 | -- |
| Watervliet, N.Y....| 235 | 200 | 350 | 4500 | 75 |
| Groveland, N.Y.....| 57 | 150 in | 200 | 2280 | 8 |
| | | 1836. | | | |
| North Union, O.....| 102 | -- | 200 | 1335 | 9 |
| Union Village, O...| 215 | 600 | 600 | 4500 | 70 |
| Watervliet, O......| 55 | 100 | 100 | 1300 | 10 |
| White Water, O.....| 100 | 150 | 150 | 1500 | 10 |
| Pleasant Hill, Ky..| 245 | 450 | 490 | 4200 | 20 |
| South Union, Ky....| 230 | 349 | 349 | 6000 | 15 |
|____________________|_____|___________|___________|________|_________|
| | | | | | |
| Eighteen Societies.|2415 | -- | -- | 49,335 | -- |
|____________________|_____|___________|___________|________|_________|
The returns of land include, for the most part, only the home farms; and
several of the societies own considerable quantities of real estate in
distant states, of which I could get no precise returns.
THE PERFECTIONISTS OF ONEIDA AND WALLINGFORD.
THE PERFECTIONISTS OF ONEIDA AND WALLINGFORD
I.--HISTORICAL.
The Oneida and Wallingford Communists are of American origin, and their
membership is almost entirely American.
Their founder, who is still their head, John Humphrey Noyes, was born in
Brattleboro, Vermont, in 1811, of respectable parentage. He graduated
from Dartmouth College, began the study of the law, but turned shortly
to theology; and studied first at Andover, with the intention of fitting
himself to become a foreign missionary, and later in the Yale
theological school. At New Haven he came under the influence of a
zealous revival preacher, and during his residence there he "landed in a
new experience and new views of the way of salvation, which took the
name of Perfectionism."
This was in 1834. He soon returned to Putney, in Vermont, where his
father's family then lived, and where his father was a banker. There he
preached and printed; and in 1838 married Harriet A. Holton, the
granddaughter of a member of Congress, and a convert to his doctrines.
He slowly gathered about him a small company of believers, drawn from
different parts of the country, and with their help made known his new
faith in various publications, with such effect that though in 1847 he
had only about forty persons in his own congregation, there appear to
have been small gatherings of "Perfectionists" in other states, in
correspondence with Noyes, and inclined to take him as their leader.
Originally Noyes was not a Communist, but when his thoughts turned in
that direction he began to prepare his followers for communal life; in
1845 he made known to them his peculiar views of the relations of the
sexes, and in 1846 the society at Putney began cautiously an experiment
in communal living.
Their views, which they never concealed, excited the hostility of the
people to such a degree that they were mobbed and driven out of the
place; and in the spring of 1848 they joined some persons of like faith
and practice at Oneida, in Madison County, New York. Here they began
community life anew, on forty acres of land, on which stood an unpainted
frame dwelling-house, an abandoned Indian hut, and an old Indian
saw-mill. They owed for this property two thousand dollars. The place
was neglected, without cultivation, and the people were so poor that for
some time they had to sleep on the floor in the garret which was their
principal sleeping-chamber.
The gathering at Oneida appears to have been the signal for several
attempts by followers of Noyes to establish themselves in communes. In
1849 a small society was formed in Brooklyn, N.Y., to which later the
printing for all the societies was entrusted. In 1850 another community
was begun at Wallingford, in Connecticut. There were others, of which I
find no account; but all regarded Oneida as their centre and leader; and
in the course of time, and after various struggles, all were drawn into
the common centre, except that at Wallingford, which still exists in a
flourishing condition, having its property and other interests in common
with Oneida.
[Illustration: J H NOYES, FOUNDER OF THE PERFECTIONISTS]
The early followers of Noyes were chiefly New England farmers, the
greater part of whom brought with them some means, though not in any
single case a large amount. Noyes himself and several other members
contributed several thousand dollars each, and a "Property Register"
kept from the beginning of the community experiment showed that up to
the first of January, 1857, the members of all the associated communes
had brought in the considerable amount of one hundred and seven thousand
seven hundred and six dollars. I understand, however, that this sum was
not at any one time in hand, and that much of it came in several years
after the settlement at Oneida in 1848; and it is certain that in the
early days, while they were still seeking for some business which should
be at the same time agreeable to them and profitable, they had sometimes
short commons. They showed great courage and perseverance, for through
all their early difficulties they maintained a printing-office and
circulated a free paper.
At first they looked toward agriculture and horticulture as their
main-stays for income; but they began soon to unite other trades with
these. Their saw-mill sawed lumber for the neighboring farmers; they set
up a blacksmith shop, and here, besides other work, they began to make
traps by hand, having at first no means to buy machinery, and indeed
having to invent most of that which they now use in their extensive trap
shop.
Like the Shakers with their garden seeds, and all other successful
communities with their products, the Perfectionists got their start by
the excellence of their workmanship. Their traps attracted attention
because they were more uniformly well made than others; and thus they
built up a trade which has become very large. They raised small fruits,
made rustic furniture, raised farm crops, sold cattle, had at one time a
sloop on the Hudson; and Noyes himself labored as a blacksmith, farmer,
and in many other employments.
Working thus under difficulties, they had sunk, by January, 1857, over
forty thousand dollars of their capital, but had gained valuable
experience in the mean time. They had concentrated all their people at
Oneida and Wallingford; and had set up some machinery at the former
place. In January, 1857, they took their first annual inventory, and
found themselves worth a little over sixty-seven thousand dollars. Their
perseverance had conquered fortune, for in the next ten years the net
profit of the two societies amounted to one hundred and eighty thousand
five hundred and eighty dollars, according to this statement:
Net earnings in 1857.....$5,470.11
" " 1858..... 1,763.60
" " 1859.....10,278.38
" " 1860.....15,611.03
" " 1861..... 5,877.89
Net earnings in 1862....$9,859 78
" " 1863....44,755.30
" " 1864....61,382.62
" " 1865....12,382.81
" " 1866....13,198.74
During this time they made traps, traveling-bags and satchels,
mop-holders, and various other small articles, and put up preserved
fruits in glass and tin. They began at Wallingford, in 1851, making
match-boxes, and the manufacture of traveling-bags was begun in
Brooklyn, and later transferred to Oneida. Trap-making was begun at
Oneida in 1855; fruit-preserving in 1858, and in 1866 the silk
manufacture was established.
Meantime they bought land, until they have in 1874, near Oneida, six
hundred and fifty-four acres, laid out in orchards, vineyards, meadows,
pasture and wood land, and including several valuable water-powers; and
at Wallingford two hundred and forty acres, mainly devoted to grazing
and the production of small fruits. They have erected in both places
commodious and substantial dwellings and shops, and carry on at this
time a number of industries, of which some account will be found further
on.
The two communities, whose members are interchangeable at will and
whenever necessity arises, must be counted as one. At Oneida they have
founded a third, on a part of their land, called Willow Place, but this
too is but an offshoot of the central family. In February, 1874, they
numbered two hundred and eighty-three persons, of whom two hundred and
thirty-eight were at Oneida and Willow Place, and forty-five at
Wallingford. Of these one hundred and thirty-one were males, and one
hundred and fifty-two females. Of the whole number, sixty-four were
children and youth under twenty-one--thirty-three males and thirty-one
females. Of the two hundred and nineteen adults, one hundred and five
were over forty-five years of age--forty-four men and sixty-one women.
They employ in both places from twenty to thirty-five farm laborers,
according to the season, and a number of fruit-pickers in the time of
small fruits. Besides, at Oneida they employ constantly two hundred and
one hired laborers, of whom one hundred and three are women,
seventy-five of whom work in the silk factory; sixty-seven of the men
being engaged in the trap works, foundry, and machine shops. At
Wallingford the silk works give employment to thirty-five hired women
and girls.
Originally, and for many years, these Communists employed no outside
labor in their houses; but with increasing prosperity they have begun to
hire servants and helpers in many branches. Thus at Oneida there are in
the laundry two men and five women; in the kitchen three men and seven
women; in the heating or furnace room two men; in the shoemaker's shop
two; and in the tailor's shop two--all hired people. At Wallingford they
hire three women and one man for their laundry.
These hired people are the country neighbors of the commune; and, as
with the Shakers and the Harmonists, they like their employers. These
pay good wages, and treat their servants kindly; looking after their
physical and intellectual well-being, building houses for such of them
as have families and need to be near at hand, and in many ways showing
interest in their welfare.
The members of the two societies are for the most part Americans, though
there are a few English and Canadians. There are among them lawyers,
clergymen, merchants, physicians, teachers; but the greater part were
New England farmers and mechanics. Former Congregationalists and
Presbyterians Episcopalians, Methodists, and Baptists are among
them--but no Catholics.
They have a great number of applications from persons desirous to become
members. During 1873 they received over one hundred such by letter,
besides a nearly equal number made in person. They are not willing now
to accept new members; but I believe they are looking about for a place
suitable for a new settlement, and would not be unwilling, if a number
of persons with sufficient means for another colony should present
themselves, to help them with teachers and guides.
In the year 1873 the Oneida Community produced and sold preserved fruits
to the value of $27,417; machine and sewing silk and woven goods worth
$203,784; hardware, including traps, chucks, silk-measuring machines and
silk-strength testers (the last two of their own invention), gate-hinges
and foundry castings, $90,447. They raised twenty-five acres of sweet
corn, six acres of tomatoes, two acres of strawberries, two of
raspberries; half an acre of currants, half an acre of grapes,
twenty-two acres of apples, and three and a half acres of pears.
Silk-weaving has been abandoned, as not suitable to them.
At the beginning of 1874 they were worth over half a million of dollars.