Wakemanites

Wakemanites

a small party of fanatics existing at New Haven, Conn., in 1855, who regarded Rhoda Wakeman as a divinely commissioned prophetess that had been raised from the dead, according to her own prediction. Their credulity was carried to an unusual extreme. The so-called prophetess claimed that a farmer named Justus Matthews was possessed by an evil spirit, and that it was necessary to put him to death in order to remove it. Her followers were ready to perform the deed, and even the man himself was willing to submit to be murdered as the only means of being rid of the evil spirit. Upon the commission of the crime the fanatical sect was soon extinguished.