Letter from Francis Asbury to Daniel Hitt (July 28, 1805)
“Brother Dougharty writes they serve God all manner of ways, jerking, dancing, etc.; yet the work goes on….”
Extracts from the Missionary Journal of John Lyle (October 27–November 3, 1805)
“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….”
Excerpt from Thomas Brown’s Account of the People Called Shakers (ca. 1805)
“People of every age, sex, sect, and condition appeared to be more or less affected with the disagreeable operations of these exercises, not only at their meetings, but in their daily employments….”
Extracts from the Published Missionary Journal of John Lyle (November 2–3, 1805)
“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….”
Excerpt from David Rice’s Epistle to the Citizen’s of Kentucky (1805)
“Am I an opposer of a revival of religion, when I say the jirks, dancing &c. are not God’s instituted means of Grace, nor Scriptural evidences of true religion? and that when they are voluntary, they are a corruption of God’s worship?”
Excerpt from the Journal of Benjamin Seth Youngs (January 5, 1806)
“In the evening most of the believers met [for] the first time publicly in this place…. A. Dunlavy who had never before been exercised, was taken with shaking & Jerking from that to dancing, which continued for 4 hours with scarce any intermission.”
