Ed Dorgan
Har-Bur Middle School, Regional School District 10
TEACHER'S SNAPSHOT
Topics:
Agriculture, Art, Belief & Religion, Business & Industry
Themes:
Cultural Diversity and an American National Identity, Gender Roles in Economic, Political, and Social Life, Role of Connecticut in U.S. History
Town:
Enfield
Grade:
Grade 8
Historical Background
The Shakers were a Protestant sect founded in England in 1747. Like Quakers, Shakers were pacifists who had progressive notions of gender and racial equality. The Shakers promoted intellectual and artistic growth within the group. Shaker members dressed plainly and treated both men and women as equals, although men and women lived separately and were celibate. Shakers built their communities in rural areas, far from the negative influences of the cities. Like other utopian societies founded in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the Shakers’ goal was to form a more perfect society upon earth by following simple and creative ways of living. This activity helps examine American utopian societies and social reform movements from the 1830s to the 1860s.
D1: Potential Compelling Question
D1: POTENTIAL SUPPORTING QUESTIONS
- How did the Shaker community become established in Enfield, Connecticut?
- What was the legacy of the Shaker community in Enfield, Connecticut?
- Why did the Shaker community in Enfield dissolve in 1917?
- In what ways did 19th-century utopian communities hold a mirror up to the rest of society?
D2: TOOL KIT
Shaker Village, Enfield. John Warner Barber, probably 1836. Connecticut Museum of Culture and History.
Shakers, Their Mode of Worship. Printed by D. W. Kellogg & Co., 1830-1840, after a work by John Warner Barber. Connecticut Museum of Culture and History.
Poster listing seeds for sale by the United Society of Shakers in Enfield, Connecticut, 1840s. Connecticut Museum of Culture and History.
“North Family Shakers, Shaker Station, Conn., will keep horses, on winter feed, hay and grain, for $ blank per week.” Dated July 17th, 1884. Connecticut Museum of Culture and History.
Rocking Chair, 1840-1860. Connecticut Museum of Culture and History.
Shaker built-in cabinet from the Laundry/Wash House at the Enfield, Connecticut Shaker community. Constructed in 1857 by Grove Wright (1789-1861). New Britain Museum of American Art.
Studio portrait of Sister Emma Strobridge, 1890. Connecticut Museum of Culture and History.
Basket, made by Enfield Shaker Community, 19th century. Connecticut Museum of Culture and History.
Table/Stand, 1820-1850, originally owned by the Enfield Shaker Community. Connecticut Museum of Culture and History.
Desk, 1825-1875. Probably originally owned by the Enfield Shaker Community. Connecticut Museum of Culture and History.
Shaker Box, late 19th Century. New Britain Museum of American Art.
Studio portrait of Maria Lyman, 1890. Connecticut Museum of Culture and History.
“The Enfield Shakers (1792-1917)” Enfield (CT) Historical Society.
“Utopias in America” National Park Service.
D3: INQUIRY ACTIVITY
1. Do Now! Post the compelling question. Provide students the definition of a utopian society.
2. Share image of the Enfield Shaker Community by John Warner Barber. Ask students to describe what they see and what is happening in the image using the Visual Thinking Strategies and discuss what the significance of this image might be.
[Optional: Play the song “It’s a Gift to Be Simple” in the background. Read the lyrics and explain that this was a song sung by the Shakers.]
3. Assign individual students (or pairs) two Shaker items from the list in the toolkit. Using the Library of Congress Primary Source Analysis Tool as their guide, students will examine the images, objects, or documents and try to determine what they can tell us about the Shaker lifestyle. Students should address the following questions: Explain how the Shakers lived and what they produced? Based on your findings, in what ways did the Enfield Shakers work to establish a utopian society? Next, students will share their findings with other students and discuss the significance of the Shaker community in Enfield within the context of 19th-century America.
4. Students will read the article, “The Enfield Shakers (1792-1917)” and answer the supporting questions listed above.
6. Historian Robert V. Hine defined utopian societies as “a group of people who are attempting to establish a new social pattern based upon a vision of the ideal society and who have withdrawn themselves from the community at large to embody that vision in experimental form.” Students will consider this definition and read the National Park Service article on utopias in America in order to conclude whether the Shaker community in Enfield, Connecticut, was a utopia.
D4: COMMUNICATING CONCLUSIONS
- Students can create a design for a plaque, which would describe the contributions and legacy of the Shakers in Enfield, Connecticut. Their design could be submitted to the Connecticut Tourism Office for consideration.
- Using the National Park Service article as a starting place, students will research other utopian societies and write an essay or create a presentation about one or more of them.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Place to GO
Enfield Historical Society, Enfield, which has an exhibit on the Shakers Community
Site of the former Enfield Connecticut Shaker community. The South Family dormitory, and behind it the Laundry Building, are visible from Cybulski Road in Enfield. Note that some of the former Enfield, Connecticut Shaker sites are now on Connecticut Department of Corrections property and are off-limits to visitors.
New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, with its collection of Enfield Shaker items
Hancock Shaker Village, Pittsfield, Massachusetts
Things To DO
Explore Shaker music:
Shaker Village, Sabbathday Lake, Maine
Enfield Shaker Museum, New Hampshire
Folkstreams
Try some Shaker recipes:
Hancock Shaker Village, Massachusetts
Enfield Shaker Museum, New Hampshire
Learn more about the Enfield, Connecticut Shakers:
The Shakers of Enfield, Connecticut 1780-1968 by Stephen Paterwic, Couper Press, Shaker Studies, no. 16., 2020.
Websites to VISIT
Enfield Historical Society (Enfield Shakers, 1792-1917)
Articles to READ
“Enfield Shaker Legacy” by Mike Miller for Connecticut Explored. ConnecticutHistory.org.
“History of the Shakers.” National Park Service.
