While many of the people who joined Shaker communities, if not the vast majority, found the sense of purpose and fulfillment they dearly yearned for, there were exceptions. The account of the Dyer family in 19th century New Hampshire has come to exemplify the complicated and anguished nature…
A distinctive religious community began in Canterbury, N.H., in 1782 as an informal assembly of new converts to the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, known as the Shakers.
