Hancock Shaker Village
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Hancock Shaker Village
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Shaker barn
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| Nearest city | Hancock, Massachusetts |
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| Coordinates | 42°25′48″N 73°20′20″W / 42.43°N 73.339°WCoordinates: 42°25′48″N 73°20′20″W / 42.43°N 73.339°W |
| Built | 1790 |
| NRHP Reference # | 68000037 |
| Added to NRHP | November 24, 1968 |
Hancock Shaker Village is a former Shaker village in Hancock, Massachusetts that was established in 1791. It was the third of nineteen major Shaker villages established between 1783 and 1836 in New York, New England, Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana under the leadership of "Mother" Ann Lee and later Joseph Meacham and Lucy Wright.
The village was closed by the Shakers in 1960, and sold to a local group, who now operate the property as a museum. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places and declared a National Historic Landmark District in 1968.
The Shaker religion began in Manchester, England in 1747 and found its leader in a charismatic young woman named Ann Lee. In 1770, she is said to have had visions and revelations which taught her that only by renouncing carnal knowledge could humankind ever achieve entrance into heaven. After enduring persecution in England, a small group of Shakers, including Lee, set sail for America in 1774. They came to settle in the Albany, New York area, and from there expanded through missionary trips in the Northeast. Mother Ann died in 1784. What had started as a small following eventually expanded to a religion that, at its height in the mid-nineteenth century, claimed over 5,000 believers. The Shakers are a religious order who believe in pacifism, celibacy, communal living, and gender equality. In the nineteenth century Shaker worship included singing, shaking, and ecstatic dance, which is why they were called the "Shaking Quakers," or "Shakers." The utopian sect is known for its plain architecture and furniture. A handful of Shakers still practice their faith in a Shaker settlement in Sabbathday Lake, Maine.
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