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Ann the Word The Story of Ann Lee, Female Messiah, Mother of the Shakers, the Woman Clothed with the Sun"And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars" (Revelation XII, 1). This apocalyptic biblical image of the coming of a female messiah has often been used to describe one of the most remarkable and charismatic women in the history of modern religion--Ann Lee, the uncompromising and fanatical leader of the 18th-century religious sect known as the Shakers, and the fascinating subject of Richard Francis' excellent biography Ann the Word: The Story of Ann Lee, Female Messiah Mother of the Shakers The Woman Clothed with the Sun. Born in Toad Lane in Manchester in 1736, Ann was an illiterate garment worker and cook at the local infirmary. In 1758 she joined the Shakers, a small religious cult in thrall to a wrathful God who manifested his presence in their bodies through wild singing, speaking in tongues and "shaking". In 1770 Ann experienced a profound religious vision and revealed herself as "the counter-Eve and counterpart of Jesus". From this point on she became "Ann the Word", the "Mother" and spiritual leader of the Shakers. Suffering from local hostility and persecution, Ann and her followers set sail for America in 1774 and settled in upstate New York, and began the long and hard mission to "ensure that instead of being simply a cranky religious sect in northern England, Shakerism would become entwined with the developing culture of America".
Francis eloquently and sympathetically captures the terrifying fervour of Ann's charismatic and often coercive brand of religion, and portrays the terrible persecution meted out to the Shakers in vivid detail. By the time of her death in 1784 Ann "had been to 36 towns and villages, and had established a spiritual community of around a thousand souls". Ann Lee was not someone you would want to invite to your party, but Francis' book brilliantly evokes this difficult but extraordinary woman. --Jerry Brotton
