“We have now got the Silent, the jirking, the laughing, and the dancing also the [runing] & pointing exercises. Each one of these in their turns have staggered serious people but they are still as it were constrained to acknowledge this O Lord is thy work, and it is wondrous in our eyes….”
“[W]e Are exercised in A religious way we think. This is the Genus As general name for the thing; but there Are A great many specimens of this exercise. There is the jerking; this is the most Common. In addition to this, there is the dancing, Laughing, running, walking, pointing, fighting and falling exercise….”
“They have now the dancing exercise, the Jerking, exercise, the running exercise, the standing exercise, & even the shooting exercise…. I am afraid what I believe was a gracious visitation from heaven in the first instance will be brought into disgrace by these extravagances….”
“I had heard about a singularity called the jerks or jerking exercise, which appeared first near Knoxville, in August last, to the great alarm of the people….”
“Those who withdrew themselves last fall from the Presbyterian Church, perhaps, go to greater lengths, than any set, or sect, of people ever did. The Tenesse exercise has got very comon among them….”
![Newspaper Article from the [Richmond] Virginia Argus (October 24, 1804)](https://blog.richmond.edu/jerkshistory/files/2018/02/VirginiaArgus1804-1080.jpg)
“There is one species of these ‘religious exercises’ which are certainly involuntary, and they have spread from the camp and other religious meetings, in an alarming manner. These are called ‘the jerks.'”
