| Shaker communities developed as family settings, where significant numbers of young people made their homes. This dissertation analyzed that setting in light of women's and children's studies. Control mechanisms, especially in the written form, were primary concerns. This study analyzed how effectively the written rules and ideologies equated to everyday life, and how well the children were taught to write and read. Chapter I on Homelife explored why the children arrived and the physical settings. The Shaker home was compared with worldly settings, including the asylum. Core concepts of work and worship, along with the roles of sexual division came under study. The final section explored the idea of affection between adults and children, and delved into that quintessential childhood rite, that of play. In Chapter II, The Shakers and Their Contemporaries, groups such as the Owenite community, Oneida, and Amana were compared with the Shakers. Issues from Chapter I were further developed such as the use of the rod to discipline, the concern over dolls as a form of play, and the fears of women to surrender their children to communal care. Chapter III Education Amongst the Believers reviewed the educational practices of the Shakers, which gradually evolved during the nineteenth century and closely paralleled education in worldly classrooms. In each case, the trends over time centered on increased time spent in educational settings, greater diversity of subjects studied, improvements in physical settings and supplies, ever increasing levels of governmental control, methods of rewarding students, teacher qualifications, and teacher training. Chapter IV on Literacy presented the first study of the writings of Shaker children. Children's writings were studied on a gendered basis. Writing's counterpart in literacy was reading, a subject that also followed a gendered path. The standards of literacy came from the world and from Shaker materials. Studies of the books read and under which circumstances they were read were topics that found ready discussion in Shaker and worldly realms. Children's writings, school documents, and library lists helped to pinpoint practices and changes over time. |
