The Shakers have eighteen societies, scattered over seven states; but
each of these societies contains several families; and as each "family"
is practically, and for all pecuniary and property ends, a distinct
commune, there are in fact fifty-eight Shaker communities, which I have
found to be in a more or less prosperous condition. These fifty-eight
families contain an aggregate population of 2415 souls, and own real
estate amounting to about one hundred thousand acres, of which nearly
fifty thousand are in their own home farms.
Moreover, the Shakers have, as will be seen further on, a pretty
thoroughly developed and elaborate system of theology; and a
considerable literature of their own, to which they attach great
importance.
The Shakers are a celibate order, composed of men and women living
together in what they call "families," and having agriculture as the
base of their industry, though most of them unite with this one or more
other avocations. They have a uniform style of dress; call each other by
their first names; say yea and nay, but not thee or thou; and their
social habits have led them to a generally similar style of house
architecture, whose peculiarity is that it seeks only the useful, and
cares nothing for grace or beauty, and carefully avoids ornament.
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