Description
"The Shakers and the Shawnee Prophet" is a microhistory that traces the development of the earliest Shaker communities in Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana and examines their interactions with members of the pan-Indian nativist movement led by Tenskwatawa--the famed Shawnee Indian prophet and brother of the prominent war captain Tecumseh--between 1805 and 1815. It establishes direct connections between the so-called Great Revival (1799-1805)--the powerful frontier camp meetings that contributed to the formation of the southern Bible Belt--and new religious movements that developed simultaneously among the Native peoples of the trans-Appalachian west. The research is based on a wide range of understudied Shaker manuscripts, including the extraordinary 400-page travel journal of missionary Benjamin Seth Youngs. Written for a general audience interested in frontier history, American evangelicalism, and Native American religions, "The Shakers and the Shawnee Prophet" is a powerful story that will resonate with readers struggling to come to terms with the troubled relationship between religion and racial violence in our own time.
