William W. Bennett’s nineteenth-century history of Methodism in Virginia includes reflections on the jerking exercise by circuit rider Joseph Carson. Click here for the full text of Bennett’s Memorials of Methodism in Virginia (1870).
In the Virginia Conference there are three men who are the remaining links that connect us with the age of the fathers, John Early, Benjamin Devany and Joseph Carson. May their last days he as full of the peaceable fruits of righteousness, as their lives have been full of all good works in the service of Christ.
In reference to the general prosperity of the Churches in Virginia this year, we have no reliable information. We however, feel quite sure that the reader will be entertained by the following extracts from the personal narratives of Messrs. Devany and Carson.
“I was ordained Deacon,” says the latter, “at the Baltimore Conference of 1807, by Bishop Asbury. The old Bishop said he intended, ‘to warn Baltimore faithfully at this Conference.’ He therefore engaged every church in the city (except the Roman Catholic) and every Market House, to have preaching in on the Sabbath. In the morning I preached in Light Street Church, and in the afternoon in one of the Markets; here there was a great deal of interest manifested; the butcher’s block on which I stood was surrounded with penitents, and several were converted. From this Conference I was sent to Staunton circuit; it was a two weeks circuit with thirteen appointments and embraced all of Augusta, part of Rockingham, and part of Rockbridge counties. Here I had an opportunity of seeing something of that singular affection called the Jerks. I have known ladies to attend church without bonnets, or combs in their hair; and I have positively seen them jerk so violently that their hair would crack like a whip. I have seen persons jerked over ground which was rocky and full of stumps, and wonderful to tell, they were never hurt. They would always beg not to be held or touched while thus affected, saying that it caused great pain. I had heard that this strange affection could be produced simply by pronouncing the word jerk with emphasis, but I did not believe it; for I was incredulous with regard to the whole thing at first, and I determined to prove it. I was one evening with a young lady who was wild and frolicsome, and I thought she was a very good subject for my experiment. In the course of conversation I introduced the word, strongly emphasizing it; the influence seemed to be electric, for in one moment she was jerking powerfully. She ran to the door, but just as she would raise the latch, a jerk would throw her midway the floor; she was finally jerked under the bed, when the rattling of some carpenter’s tools warned us that that was an unsafe place for her, so in spite of her entreaties we had to take hold of her.
Source
William W. Bennett, Memorials of Methodism in Virginia: From Its Introduction into the State, in the Year 1772, to the Year 1829 (Richmond, Va.: Published by the Author, 1871), 524–526.
