Description
From Shakers to Spiritual Baptists examines the factors and circumstances that led to the passage of the Shaker Prohibition Ordinance that declared the Shaker religion illegal in 1912. It then traces the efforts made to repeal that Ordinance. The point of interest is at the Shakers’ struggle for survival and for their right to worship within the manner they deemed fit. Central to this were the environment and conditions that emerged in St. Vincent after the riots of 1935. George McIntosh, who used to be some of the main political personalities to have come on to the political scene after the riots, is depicted as some of the chief architects of the efforts to have the Ordinance repealed. Some attention is paid to the origin of the religion known to start with as ‘The Wilderness People’. This account of our only known indigenous religion must be of interest to all members of that religion and of Vincentians most often, as the forces against which the Shakers needed to contend were ones that helped to shape such a lot of our history and society.