• Facebook
  • Home
  • Archive
  • History
  • Map
  • Teaching
  • Contact
History of the Jerks: Bodily Exercises and the Great Revival (1803–1967)
  • All
  • Authors
  • Chronology
  • Collections
  • Denominations
  • Exercises
  • Genres
  • States & Territories
Select Page
Excerpt from William Henry Foote’s Sketches of North Carolina (ca. 1804)

Excerpt from William Henry Foote’s Sketches of North Carolina (ca. 1804)

1802-1804, Barking Exercise, Books, Essays & Treatises, Presbyterians, Running Exercise

“A venerable clergyman now living…was affected by the jerks a few times…. Suddenly he began leaping about, first forward, then sideways, and sometimes, standing still, would swing backward and forward ‘see-saw fashion.’ This motion of his body was both involuntary and irresistible at the commencement….”

Extracts from the Missionary Journal of John Lyle (October 27–November 3, 1805)

Extracts from the Missionary Journal of John Lyle (October 27–November 3, 1805)

1805-1809, Dancing Exercise, Diaries & Journals, Kentucky Historical Society, Other Bodily Exercises & General References, Presbyterians

“Mr. McGready said sometime afterwards that we could not account for jerking &c. on any natural principle, that the jerks were designed to answer the end of miracles, in drawing the attention of mankind & convincing infidels of the power of God….”

Extracts from the Published Missionary Journal of John Lyle (November 2–3, 1805)

Extracts from the Published Missionary Journal of John Lyle (November 2–3, 1805)

1805-1809, Dancing Exercise, Diaries & Journals, Presbyterians, Union Presbyterian Seminary

“The jerks were by far the most violent and shocking I had ever seen. The heads of the jerking patients flew, with wonderous quickness, from side to side, in various directions, and their necks doubled like a flail in the hands of a thresher….”

Search the Archive

Browse by Category

Popular Tags

African Americans (10) Baptists (17) barking (23) Barton Warren Stone (8) Benjamin Seth Youngs (9) bodily exercises (33) camp meetings (29) convulsions (16) dancing (56) diseases (11) exhorting (10) falling (32) Issachar Bates (9) jerker tales (16) jerking (98) jumping (12) Kentucky (51) laughing (17) Lexington (Ky.) (8) Methodists (47) nerves/nervous affection (15) New Lights (22) New York (10) North Carolina (16) Ohio (22) Pennsylvania (20) Philadelphia (Pa.) (18) praying (13) preaching (39) Presbyterians (66) revivals (43) Richard McNemar (9) Rockbridge County (Va.) (8) running (17) sacrament (17) Shakers (19) shouting (22) singing (26) society meetings (10) sympathy (15) Tennessee (43) Turtlecreek Township (Ohio) (10) Virginia (26) Warren County (Ohio) (8) West Virginia (8)

For more information or to report technology issues, contact Douglas Winiarski, Religious Studies Department, University of Richmond, at dwiniars@richmond.edu.

Designed by Elegant Themes | Powered by WordPress