“A great revival of religion took place in this neighborhood this summer. It began in a way that I never saw before, and it continues in a very strange way. It began with a jurking and shaking of the body, something like convulsion fits, and this bodily exercise continued with some for three or four months, and that daily.”
“Dr. Doak’s sermon was unusually powerful, but in the midst of his discourse he was seized with such a violent attack of the jerks that he fell and went rolling and jerking down the hill. He continued to roll for some time, but he finally grew quiet enough to rise and conclude his sermon though his knees continued to shake….”
“A strange and unknown Nervous Affection, or Disease, made its appearance, in a variety of forms, in different parts of the Counties of Knox and Blount…. [It] was termed; ‘the Jerks.'”
![Newspaper Article from the [Richmond] Virginia Argus (October 24, 1804)](https://blog.richmond.edu/jerkshistory/files/2018/02/VirginiaArgus1804-1080.jpg)
“There is one species of these ‘religious exercises’ which are certainly involuntary, and they have spread from the camp and other religious meetings, in an alarming manner. These are called ‘the jerks.'”
“It is asserted in some prints, that these assemblies have originated a disorder called the Jerks….”
“I suppose there are but few individuals in the United States, who have not at least heard of the unparalleled blaze of enthusiastic religion which burst forth in the western country about the year 1800…. It was under these circumstances that some found themselves unable by voluntary efforts to suppress the contraction of their muscles….”
