“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….”
“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.”
“He is a thorough Methodist believes in all of the religious exercises after the straightest of the sect…. I shall not fall out with him for advocating the genuine Jerks….”
“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….”
“What the real cause of this singular phenomenon is has been a matter of dispute. It seems to me to have been one of those demonical possessions which were so numerous in the days of the Savior and we…have reasons to believe that they still exist and not in small numbers.”
“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….”
