“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….”
“Our informant was present at several of their meetings in Avoca, and describes the scene as very exciting. From fifty to a hundred were jerking at the same time….”
“The scene in the church was often supremely ludicrous. Just imagine forty or fifty persons going through all the different postures, twistings, bendings, strikings, kickings, and other violent motions…, and you will have a faint idea of the scene exhibited here night after night….”
“I saw several young ladies…, who began to be uncommonly exercised…. It appeared to mortify and embarrass them very much, when they had ‘the power’ as it was called…. [T]heir shoulders would be seized with violent and sudden convulsions, the neck, also, would be affected with spasms, which threw back the head in a frightful manner….”
“The duration of this epidemic was much shorter than that of most of those in Europe. In a little more than a twelve-month, it had almost entirely disappeared…. It was to the scenes enacted at this time, we believe, that the epithet ‘Jerks’ was first applied.”
“I have frequently thought that a history of the singular exercises, called the “Jirks,” and other strange operations which affected the subjects of the great Kentucky Revival, would be interesting to my readers….”
