“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.”
![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….”
“It was evident to every spectator, that this, and it may be said, in general, with respect to all the bodily exercises, that they were involuntary; for it seemed impossible that the body could be so agitated by any dictate of the will….”
“The jerking convert…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….”
“When any ask me to explain all these antics or exercises, I say I do not explain what I do not understand. Many who had these exercises did not understand them—would not account for them. I am not called to analyze or methodize the jerks: have no tools for that work….”
