Tea at Trianon: Lucy Wright and the Shakers

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Friday, April 19, 2013

Lucy Wright and the Shakers

The Shakers were a uniquely American, quasi-monastic, charismatic Protestant movement, founded outside of Albany, New York. They expressed their religious fervor through dance. To quote:

Lucy worked diligently to energize the westward expansion of Shakerism. Under her administration the decision was made, in 1804, to send out the mission which eventually led to the establishment of 7 Shaker societies in Kentucky, Ohio, & Indiana. By 1840, an estimated 5,000 or more Shakers lived in 19 principal communities in New England, New York, Ohio, & Kentucky. Brothers and sisters lived in dormitory accommodations in dwelling houses separated by sex. Males & females used separate stairways, & meeting houses had separate entrances & seating arrangements. Daily labors were also divided by gender. Shaker communities were agriculturally-based. Communities grew their own produce, raised livestock, wove cloth, made finely-crafted furniture, & sold a variety of goods to what they referred to as the (outside) “World.”

This type of communal living may have appealed to many for both spiritual & practical reasons. Membership freed individuals from the responsibility of individual land ownership, while providing converts with clothing, daily meals, & jobs. It also liberated many from the constraints of marriage & childbirth. Although the Shakers chose not to procreate, families with children often joined, & communities also adopted children. At the age of 21, these young adults could either choose to become full covenant members or leave to live in the World. (Read entire post.)