Although he frequently traveled through the southern backcountry during the Great Revival, Francis Asbury, the prominent Methodist bishop, rarely commented on the bodily exercises in his journals or correspondence. This letter to Kentucky minister Daniel Hitt is a notable exception. Following a description of Methodist successes and trials in New England, Asbury reported that circuit rider George Dougharty had recently witnessed the dancing and jerking exercises in the Camden Distict of South Carolina.
NEW YORK
July 28, 1805
My dear Daniel:
May great grace attend thee. My letters were waiting in this city. I marked the contents, especially upon Redstone: it may be the case; but Stoneman we all know has his crooks; Budd has his peculiarities. I am going to see and hear for myself, if God permit. If you can relieve Brother Fleming, he may return; but there can be no change till Conference. We must take care how we step back; if we step wrong, sometimes we may step upon a log, or into a pit. I shall not (indeed the Minutes are in the press, and partially done) make any alterations. I am happy to find that we have great union in the New York and New England Conferences. Letters addressed from these Conferences to the West and succeeding Conferences announce the same.
In Lynn God was glorious; the work of God was begun in the Society; several souls were in distress; the preaching-house crowded at five o’clock; preaching in the morning. Necessity and choice drove us to a grove near the meetinghouse; two, if not three, thousand souls upon Sabbath day; many souls convicted, some converted, and an awful power. I suppose we had twenty sermons, near one hundred exhortations, and multitudes of prayers in six days. Satan was obliged to go to Boston to bring men to oppose the work. Lynn was thunderstruck; meetings held till midnight, as in Baltimore.
O Glory! Superstition falls in New England. I look for great persecution; all hell is in motion. I think some of us shall be martyrs yet, we make such conquests in every direction. Perhaps it is best to let alone G. Roberts; but say to our Conferences, if they want to go, let them go: so says Francis! Let us have volunteers. I have a zealous, active young man to attend me, by consent of the New England Conference, (Joseph Crawford). The Northern preachers appear to be greatly in the work; their poverty is great, but they are not at all discouraged. Dearly beloved Ralph is fixed in Strebeck’s remains.
I am happy to find one spirit animates the whole, for seventeen hundred miles: the same hymns, prayers, and language salute my ears and heart. This I say, we ought to be wise as serpents in the management of our meetings. I find testing and preaching ought to give way to exhortation. We had all preaching and very little exhortation at the New York Conference: in Lynn exhortation prevailed, and the work went on. We ought to communicate all we can, one to another. Brother Dougharty writes they serve God all manner of ways, jerking, dancing, etc.; yet the work goes on. They say the fellowship revives among the Presbyterians in the Camden District. I shall be pleased to have a letter from you at Union Town. Be sure to be full in a letter to me, if I live, at Camden, South Carolina Conference, and you shall hear (if I am able) from the West.
I am, as ever, thine,
Source
J. Manning Potts, Elmer T. Clark, and Jacob S. Payton, ed., The Journals and Letters of Francis Asbury, 3 vols. (Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 1958), 3:325–327.
