The Shakers: Hands to Work, Hearts to God (1984)

IMDb

Early Ken Burns film chronicles the history of the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, other wise known as the Shakers, an off-shoot of the Quakers. The Shakers were founded by a former English factor worker named Ann Lee, who I have been lead to believe declared herself the second coming of Christ, thought that issue is never directly dealt with in the documentary. Now extinct, and at the time of the making of this documentary numbering only a dozen, the Shakers were certainly a unique group. Adherents were celibate and lived communally. Like their Quaker cousins they valued simplicity, they also became noted for the quality of there carpentry and produce. They were social progressives, decrying racial prejudice and again like the Quakers, letting women hold high positions of authority in there ecclesiastical body's. What I did not know about Shakers was that they where inventors, creating both the close pin and the circular saw, not to mention the modern broom. I also hold there most famous him, Simple Gifts, to be one of the greatest of American musical compositions. So suffice it so, they interesting enough to spend an hour with.

The Shaker community notably intersects with Mormon history in the story of Leman Copley. Copley was a former Shaker who had converted to Mormonism, but continued to hold to some of the distinctive beliefs of his former religious body. After being corrected by Joseph Smith and other leading brethren, Copley was dispatched with Sidney Ridgon and Parly P. Pratt to deliver a revelation to a local Shaker settlement 'correcting' them on there beliefs. I must admit I kind of marvel at the comic bravado of this action, but I'm sure it was sincere. Smith was also a critic of the Millarites, another movement that can be grouped with the Mormons and Shakers as radical Christian thinkers of the early 19th Century. The revelation delivered to the Shakers by Copley and the others comprises section 49 of the Doctrine and Covenants.