Shaker Women and Sexual Power: Heresy and Orthodoxy in the Shaker Village of Harvard, Massachusetts

This article traces the careers of Roxalana Grosvenor and Fidelia Grosvenor, members of the Shaker village of Harvard, Massachusetts, whom the community expelled in 1865 for claiming a divine call to introduce the celibate Shakers to a new dispensation based on procreation. Examining the Shakers' "orthodox" position on celibacy as well as the changing range of ideas concerning sexuality and female power found within Shakerism in the mid- to late-nineteenth century provides a context in which to assess the Grosvenors' heresy, its challenge to Shaker orthodoxy, and its impact on Shaker women.