The Cliffs

The Shaker religion plays an important part in the history of Maine, and through Eliza’s experience in The Cliffs, J. Courtney Sullivan delves into the Shaker community of Sabbathday Lake to share the history and culture of the Shaker religion from Eliza’s perspective:

[Shaker founder] Mother Ann Lee started out a blacksmith’s wife in Manchester, England, an unremarkable member of the Wardley Society which had broken off from the Quakers in 1747. They called themselves the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing. Outsiders, in mockery, called them Shaking Quakers, or Shakers, because of their ecstatic way of worshipping (289).

Throughout the novel, Sullivan highlights the unique lifestyle and beliefs of the Shakers. Eliza notes that the children, who were raised in a dormitory separate from the adults, nonetheless participated in the daily chores: “Our lives were ruled by order. Hands to work, hearts to God. We woke at 4:30 in summer, 5:30 in winter, at the ringing of a bell” (289). She adds that upon entering the Sabbathday community, families were dissolved: Husbands and wives didn’t relate as such anymore, and children were considered as belonging to all. Eliza points out that “the Shakers had sinks and pumps and stoves beyond anything the world’s people had yet incorporated into daily life.