“I am awair that those that have never saw these things [the jerks] will be ready to say it is utterly imposable and cannot be true. But who has not seen persons in fits…preform faits [feats] intirely beyand the power of man while in the exercises of reason?”
“The jerks cannot be so easily described…. When the whole system was affected, I have seen the person stand in one place, and jerk backward and forward in quick succession, their head nearly touching the floor behind and before…..”
“At 9 we eat breakfast & about 10 we went 3 Miles to Robert Tates a family of Jerkers. He is an elder of a Presbyterian society. 7 of his family have the Jerks with himself. 2 hours had conversations with several, & saw what was very wonderful….”
“[T]he exercises by the invisible power of God went pointedly to the destruction of all antichristian forms, and inventions of men by such exercises as Jerking…& the restitution of, the true worship of God by such as dancing….”
“[O]ne circumstance contributed not a little to interrupt the harmony of the meeting…, which was the wild enthusiasm displayed by a certain female…. [S]he exhibited at some times the jerking exercise, at other times the dancing exercise, and not unfrequently the [barking] exercise….”
“[The Jerks consist] in a sudden inclination, or reclining, of the shoulders, and is so quick, that the head appears to move too slow for the shoulders…. This is common to both sexes, but with this difference, that men seldom have more than one jerk…; whereas, a woman will frequently continue a repetition of that motion…for ten or fifteen minutes, reclining backwards as far as her feet, or some other obstacle will permit her, and bending so far forwards, as almost to touch the floor with her head….”
