The Shakers: Hands to Work, Hearts to God

The documentary is about a community that took root in America. They called themselves the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing. Outsiders called them Shakers. The name came from the ecstatic dancing in their worship. Ann Lee founded the group. She was an illiterate factory worker from England. They settled in America late in the eighteenth century. They chose a plain and celibate life. Work was treated as an offering. They were pacifists and set great store by health and cleanliness. For two hundred years they looked for simplicity in everything they made, and the clothespin and the circular saw came from them. The film moves through old photographs, diaries and letters, and speaks with three surviving Shaker women. David McCullough narrates the sixty minute documentary Ken Burns and Amy Stechler finished in 1984.