Excerpts from Lorenzo Dow’s History of Cosmopolite (October 1–19, 1804)
Camp-meeting commenced at Liberty: here I saw the jerks; and some danced: a strange exercise indeed….
Excerpt from the Journal of Learner Blackman (October 20–21, 1804)
“[M]et with…Lorenzo Dow at a meeting at Liberty Hill on Nashville. There I saw much of the dancing and jerking exercises among those of the best standing in society. This was and still is in many respects an unaccountable exercise to me….”
Letter from Samuel M. Wallace to Anne “Nancy” Fleming (November 2, 1804)
“The dissenters from the Presbyterian sect has increased in number considerably and still continue to be warmly engaged in religion. They are exercised with almost all the different kinds of exercise, that you have heard of in Tenesse and Kentucky….”
Excerpt from the Autobiography of Peter Cartwright (ca. 1804)
“I always looked upon the jerks as a judgment sent from God, first, to bring sinners to repentance; and, secondly, to show professors that God could work with or without means…, and do whatsoever seemeth him good.”
Excerpt from William Henry Foote’s Sketches of North Carolina (ca. 1804)
“A venerable clergyman now living…was affected by the jerks a few times…. Suddenly he began leaping about, first forward, then sideways, and sometimes, standing still, would swing backward and forward ‘see-saw fashion.’ This motion of his body was both involuntary and irresistible at the commencement….”
Excerpt from The Biography of Elder David Purviance (ca. 1804)
“But the bodily exercise (as it was called) seemed to change its manner of operation. The falling exercise became not so common, and the jerks succeeded….”
