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The Shaker Bedchamber: The Shakers and Childhood During the 19th Century
Born out of the Reformation in Europe, The United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, more commonly known as Shakers, came to America through the work of Mother Ann. She came to America in 1774 and settled in New York state. Throughout the end of the 18th Century and into the 19th Century, the Shakers began to start communities throughout America. One such community was founded in Enfield on the shores of Mascoma Lake, in the year 1793.
The Shakers believed in communal living and pacifism. They also believed that God exists in all people. This meant that they had advanced notions of equality. This is especially evident in their treatment of women, and People of Color. Women were given equal rights in 1787, and in 1817 they began to free enslaved believers.
Items of furniture such as the desk in the Shaker Bedchamber, highlight how dedicated the Shakers were to their work. They believed that God dwelt in their work and how well-made it was. They became known for their incredible craftsmanship and dedication to quality.
Another aspect of Shakerism was their disbelief in procreation. Since they did not have children of their own, they brought adopted children from the outside community to be raised there. The children brought up there were brought up within the Shaker faith, but given the opportunity to choose to leave at the age of 21.
Childhood during this period looked quite different from childhood today. One area where this is especially evident is play. Children in the 19th Century had less time for play due to their chores. Some of the games that they would play when they did have time were very similar to the ones we know today. One such game was baseball. While the main point of the game remained the same, there were many differences to modern baseball. It was called different names such as round ball, town ball, and goal ball. The rules were much different as well. For example, you ran around the bases in the opposite direction, all balls hit were fair, pitches were all underhand, and multiple runners could be on the same base. While the baseball bat in the Shaker Bedchamber is quite similar to the ones we use today, many games would have been played with whatever was laying around. This means that baseball was often played with sticks, or axe handles for bats.
One of the reasons children had less time to play was because they were expected to work in the house or farm. The young girls were expected to learn how to manage a household from their mother. This meant they helped with sewing, spinning, and knitting. They would also assist with cooking and taking care of the animals. Young boys were expected to help out on the farm. This meant helping with animals, planting, harvesting, and much more. Because the seasons affected which work was done, the children’s schedules changed throughout the year so they could help with what was needed most.
Another reflection of the seasonality of children’s lives was school. District schools, or public schools, were not in session during the spring and fall. This was because those were the times when children were needed most on the farm. The planting and harvest seasons required the entire family to be working on the land. Because of this, school for older children was taught for ten or twelve weeks during the winter. There was another term in the summer when the younger children would attend. This was to keep them out of the way of the adults. Attendance was not compulsory because children often were needed at home for one reason or another. This meant that having an ongoing curriculum for the entire class was close to impossible. Instead, the children mostly taught themselves from their books. The school keeper was there mostly to maintain discipline and keep the children focused. Because of the availability of district schools in the 19th Century, New England had the highest literacy rate in the United States. By 1820, more than ninety percent of the population could read and write. This shows that while schools of the past were quite different from today’s schools, they were still effective in providing an education to rural communities.
Families were, on average, larger than they are today. This meant that there were often multiple children living in the same room, and sleeping in the same bed. In a house like Webster Cottage, it is likely that the adults would have shared the downstairs bedroom, and the children would have shared the upstairs spaces. Depending on how many children there were, there could have been many children sharing a bed like the rope-strung bed in the Shaker Bedchamber. This would have had its benefits in the winter months when the house would get cold. Having more people in one bed would help keep everyone warm without central heating. The rope strung bed with a trundle, would have had wool, cotton, horsehair, or feather filling for its mattress. The rope tightener on the bed brings to mind the saying “sleep tight, don’t let the bedbugs bite”, and while the wording is similar, the phrase is not actually referring to keeping rope beds tight. It is rather a phrase that evolved in the latter half of the 19th Century where “tight” refers to sleeping “soundly” or “deeply”.