Dancing Exercise, Falling Exercise, Laughing Exercise, Other Bodily Exercises & General References, Tennessee, Uncategorized, University of Michigan
“[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….”
1805-1809, Barking Exercise, Benjamin Seth Youngs, Correspondence, Falling Exercise, Issachar Bates, John Meacham, Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, Other Bodily Exercises & General References, Richard McNemar, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Western Reserve Historical Society
“Soon after they began to sing several were taken with the Jerks, while sitting on their seats. Their heads, & shoulders were Jerked back & forth, with such increasing violence, that in a few seconds their hats, & bonnets, & even hankerchiefs which were tied close to their heads would fly off. Some would soon be Jerked flat on the floor, in a manner very mortifying to all delicate feelings….”
1805-1809, Anonymous/Unknown, Church Records, Gideon Blackburn, Other Bodily Exercises & General References, Presbyterians, Tennessee
“There appears…reason to believe that in certain places, some instances of these bodily affections have been of such a nature, and proceeded to such lengths as greatly tended to impede the progress and to tarnish the glory of what, in its first stages, was so highly promising….”
1805-1809, Books, Essays & Treatises, Dancing Exercise, Kentucky, Laughing Exercise, Other/Unknown, Tennessee, Uncategorized, Virginia
“I suppose there are but few individuals in the United States, who have not at least heard of the unparalleled blaze of enthusiastic religion which burst forth in the western country about the year 1800…. It was under these circumstances that some found themselves unable by voluntary efforts to suppress the contraction of their muscles….”
1805-1809, Dancing Exercise, Falling Exercise, Magazines & Newspapers, Methodists, North Carolina, Running Exercise, Virginia, West Virginia
“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….”
