I judge that the early members were poor, from the fact that
they lived for some time in cabins. Some who came into the society at an
early date were slaveholders; and as the Shakers have always
consistently opposed slavery, these set their slaves free, but induced
them to the number of forty to join them. For many years there was a
colored family, with a colored elder, living upon the same terms as the
whites. From time to time some of these fell away and left the society;
but I was told that a number became and remained "good Shakers," and
died in the faith; and when the colored family became too small, the
remnant of members was taken in among the whites. There are at present
several colored members.
There were originally three families, but now four, one of which,
however, is small. The society numbers two hundred and thirty persons,
of whom one hundred are males and One hundred and thirty females, and
forty of these are under twenty-one--twenty-five girls and fifteen boys.
In 1827 they were most numerous, having three hundred and forty-nine
persons in all the families; they had at one time but one hundred and
seventy-five, and have risen from that in the last twenty years to their
present number. For some years they have neither increased nor
diminished, except by the coming and going of "winter Shakers," and "we
sift pretty carefully," they told me.
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