During the months following the cessation of hostilities in the War of 1812, the western Shaker communities in Kentucky and Ohio experienced a surge of religious fervor and conversions. As Pleasant Hill elder explains in this letter to a brother in Massachusetts, the Shakers’ powerful revival meetings included an array of unusual somatic phenomena, including the jerks.
From Elder John Meacham to a Brother in Hancock.
Pleasant Hill, Mercer County Ky. August 19, 1815.
…For better than four months past, our meetings have been very powerful—abundance of outward exercise, such as turning, shaking, speaking in tongues, loud & solemn exhortations in english—many public confessions, honestly exposing the nature & workings of the flesh—mighty stompings & roarings against the flesh—violent jerking, rolling, & tumbling on the floor—gifts of sorrow with many motions & signs of humiliation—then signs of joy & victory. These exercises have often continued for two hours & more, without a moments cessation—when the floor would be effectually strewed with caps, handkerchiefs, fillets, hair pegs, hair strings, pins, garters, shoes & the like. We might be more particular & give the matter greater sound, but you only want the substance.
Source
“From Elder John Meacham to a Brother in Hancock,” Aug. 19, 1815, in Alonzo Hollister, “Book of Remembrance,” 73–74, VII:B-110, MS 3944, Shaker Manuscripts, 1723–1952, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio.
