This detailed newspaper report from Charleston, South Carolina, provided readers with an early glimpse of the jerks as they spread from east Tennessee into the North Carolina piedmont.
At a Camp Meeting lately held at Banks Chapel in Granville country, we are told that there were not less than 40 tents erected to accommodate those who remained on the ground night and day—that there were at times as many as two thousand five hundred people; very many converts, supposed to be upwards of 70; some of whom underwent what is called bodily exercises—such as the jerking exercise, &c. However extraordinary this account may appear to those who have never witnessed any thing of the kind, it is a fact to be relied on, as the editor has it from many respectable and pious men who were eye-witnesses. The jerking convert, after exhorting and singing, is seized with violent fits of jerking, which generally brings him to the ground, where he lies as if labouring under a slight convulsive fit; and when the spasm seems to abate, the person immediately begins shouting and praising God for effecting his conversion, &c. The dancing or jumping convert generally commences his exercise after very fervent exhorting—at this time it is very common for a dozen persons to be seen dancing together, with their hands extended over their heads, and fingers playing loosely—the exerciser exhibiting a ghastly countenance, without speaking a single word, with his eyes closed resembling more the appearance of a living spectre than any thing else: after dancing some time, he falls with all the appearance of death, and lies apparently lifeless for nearly an hour.
Source
Charleston Courier, October 14, 1805, [2].
Image courtesy of the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts.
