From Shakers To Spiritual Baptists” by Adrian Fraser

KINGS-SVG Publishers is pleased to announce the publication of
“From Shakers To Spiritual Baptists: The Struggle For Survival of the Shakers of
St. Vincent and the Grenadines” by Adrian Fraser. The new
book examines the factors and circumstances that led to the passage of the
Shaker Prohibition Ordinance that declared the Shaker religion illegal in 1912.
It then traces the efforts made to repeal that Ordinance. The focus is on the
Shakers’ struggle for survival and for their right to worship in the manner
they deemed fit. Central to this were the environment and conditions
that emerged in St. Vincent after the riots of 1935. George McIntosh, who
was one of the main political personalities to have come on to the political scene
after the riots, is depicted as one of the chief architects of the efforts to have
the Ordinance repealed. Some attention is paid to the origin of the religion
known at first as ‘The Wilderness People'. This account of St. Vincent and
the Grenadines’ only known indigenous religion should be of interest to all
members of that religion and of Vincentians and others generally, as the
forces against which the Shakers had to contend were ones that helped
to shape so much of SVG’s history and society.

The author, Dr. Adrian Fraser, is Head of the University of the West Indies
Open Campus, St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

He is the author of Chatoyer: National Hero of St .Vincent and the Grenadines.
He is also a weekly columnist with the Searchlight newspaper of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

A formal launching of the new book is scheduled to take place on Monday, August 29, 2011,
at 5:00 p.m. at the University of the West Indies Open campus at Murray Road, Richmond Hill.
All are cordially invited to attend.