1810-1815, Correspondence, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Other Bodily Exercises & General References, Presbyterians
“One young woman had what I would call the whirling exercise…. It far exceeded anything of the kind I ever saw. I was told that she had had the jirks nearly 3 years…. Afterwards I remonstrated with some of them and cautioned them.”
1810-1815, 1816-1860, American Antiquarian Society, Barking Exercise, Dancing Exercise, Falling Exercise, Laughing Exercise, Magazines & Newspapers, Other Bodily Exercises & General References, Presbyterians, Running Exercise
“The phenomenon of…suddenly falling or sinking down, under religious exercises, has not been uncommon in times of great excitement…. But the bodily agitation called the jerks is a very different affection….”
1810-1815, Diaries & Journals, Methodists, Tennessee Historical Society
“I seen a woman have a fit in the morning & the man at knight the first that I ever saw have Convulsion fits. To see the Goodness & the mercy of God in preserving his people how thankful ought I to be….”
1810-1815, Books, Essays & Treatises, Dancing Exercise, Other/Unknown, Robert Rose, William S. Bryan
“It was about the year 1814, as near as we can ascertain—for there was no record kept of the matter—that the singular religious phenomenon called the “jerks” began to make its appearance at the camp-meetings….”
1810-1815, Autobiographies & Biographies, Barking Exercise, Christians/Disciples of Christ, Falling Exercise, Laughing Exercise, Other Bodily Exercises & General References
“[N]ow I left for cincinati again and on my way heard of the New light Presbytarians…and heard all sort of bad reports a bout them they said that…they would fall and lay for hours and…others jerk backwards and forwards with somuch force that a ladys hair wold crack like a wip….”
1816-1860, Authors & Creators, Diaries & Journals, Falling Exercise, Other/Unknown
“Many extravagances prevailed during the intervals of the preaching, particularly among the Females: called here jerking, it appears to be similar to hysteric affection. Several were so much exhausted by these exertions as to fall to the ground apparently lifeless & were conveyed to the shade by the bystanders.”