Doug Winiarski

The idea of that of a woman speaking in public, often in mixed congregations of men and women,

oftentimes offering pretty stern commentary to men, which is simply not considered appropriate or even legal in many parts of British North America.

And so as a result, Anne Lee, in her time in North America, experiences a lot of mob violence and persecution.

The Shakers arrive in Albany and the American Revolution begins just a couple of years later.

Early on during their time in Albany, the Shakers are in prison for their pacifist beliefs.

Shakers are also pacifists.

But there's a sense that the Shakers are not American.

They're not supporting the patriot cause.

So Ann Lee was jailed in Poughkeepsie, New York for a period of months.

So was her brother William and other members of the community.

In the 1780s, Anne Lee launched a series of missionary tours in New England where she began working among some of the most radical evangelical New Light congregations in New England and gathering and converting some of the most radical Protestants in New England to her new peculiar celibate faith.

And everywhere she went, she experienced mob violence.

People thought that she was bewitching people.

So the idea of a female religious leader draws a lot of attention and all of it very violent and very negative.

So she was imprisoned in both Manchester and when she gets the British North American colonies.

So she spends several stints both in jail and in essentially what is the modern equivalent of a lunatic asylum in Manchester for prison.

while she's a member of the worldly circle, for her radical prophecies and visionary experiences, and then her really combative position with regard to more mainstream English churches.

The Shakers were witnessing for their faith, and they were causing a lot of problems in England.

Same thing in North America.

When Anne Lee arrives in New England and they open the gospel as they described it in 1781, she goes on a long two-year missionary circuit throughout New England.