Amish

Amish History

There are some two dozen different Amish subgroups, each with its own practices. Some have black top buggies, whereas others sport yellow, gray, or white tops. Even within subgroups, diversity abounds. Some congregations permit power lawn mowers, whereas others do not; some use bicycles, whereas others forbid them. The farmers in one congregation may milk their cows by hand, whereas nearby Amish use automatic milkers. Despite their differences, the Amish share a common history.

Amish roots go back to the Anabaptist movement that emerged during the Protestant Reformation in Europe. Beginning in Switzerland in 1525 and spreading to other regions of Europe, the Anabaptists refused to baptize babies, arguing that only adults who had voluntarily chosen to follow Christ should be baptized. They were called Anabaptists (or rebaptizers) because they had already been baptized as infants. Considered heretics, many Anabaptists were burned at the stake, drowned in lakes, or tortured in public spectacles. A 1,200-page book, Martyr's Mirror: The Bloody Theatre of the Defenseless Christians, recorded stories of their torture and still shapes the Amish world. The harsh persecution confirmed their belief that the church should be separate from the larger society. Separation from the world soon became a key force in forming Amish ethnicity.

The Amish emerged in 1693 as a distinctive Anabaptist group in Switzerland and in the Alsace region of present-day France. An Anabaptist leader, Jakob Ammann, sought to renew church life. Among other changes, he called for shunning wayward members of the church so as to maintain its witness and purity. The differences led to a division in 1693, and Ammann's followers were soon called Amish. Many other Anabaptists eventually took the name Mennonite, derived from a Dutch Anabaptist leader, Menno Simons.

The Amish migrated to America in several waves during the mid-1700s and again during the 1800s. They formed communities in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana and eventually spread to other states, often settling near their religious cousins, the Mennonites.

Today's Community

The Amish reside in more than 370 communities in twenty-seven states and the Canadian province of Ontario. The three most populous states are Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Indiana. New communities form yearly, while others flounder and die. They are organized into some 1,600 local autonomous church districts that typically consist of twenty-five to thirty families living in a contiguous area. There is no central national ecclesiastical structure.

...