• Facebook
  • Home
  • Archive
  • History
  • Map
  • Teaching
  • Contact
History of the Jerks: Bodily Exercises and the Great Revival (1803–1967)
  • All
  • Authors
  • Chronology
  • Collections
  • Denominations
  • Exercises
  • Genres
  • States & Territories
Select Page
Letter from John King to Ashbel Green (May 4, 1802)

Letter from John King to Ashbel Green (May 4, 1802)

1802-1804, Correspondence, Falling Exercise, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Presbyterians

“I was lately informed by a neighbour of mine, just returned from the Miami country, where Mr. McNamaar is now settled (he lately moved from Kentucke) that at such meetings there, they who fall down are strongly convulsed, and so violently agitated, that it will require two or three to hold one of them….”

Excerpt from the Autobiography of William Winans (ca. 1802)

1802-1804, Autobiographies & Biographies, Methodists, Millsaps College, William Winans

“While we resided in Fayette County, I think in 1802, there was a very great Religious excitement among the Baptists and Presbyterians, in that part of Pennsylvania…. The Jerks was a prevailing exercise throughout the whole of this excitement….”

Excerpt from the Recollections of the Rev. John Johnson (ca. 1803)

1802-1804, Autobiographies & Biographies, Laughing Exercise, Methodists

“I saw one old lady spring from her seat, and pass a dozen times across the house in every direction, by a succession of leaps from two to six feet; and, to my astonishment, she never failed to light squarely and firmly upon a bench! “

Excerpts from Lorenzo Dow’s History of Cosmopolite (February 14–20, 1804)

Excerpts from Lorenzo Dow’s History of Cosmopolite (February 14–20, 1804)

1802-1804, American Antiquarian Society, Dancing Exercise, Diaries & Journals, Methodists

“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….”

Excerpts from the Journal of Robert Breckinridge McAfee (April 21–August 12, 1804)

Excerpts from the Journal of Robert Breckinridge McAfee (April 21–August 12, 1804)

1802-1804, Dancing Exercise, Diaries & Journals, Falling Exercise, Presbyterians, Western Kentucky University

“The religious people now have the Jirks which operates like Hickups….”

« Older Entries

Search the Archive

Browse by Category

Popular Tags

African Americans (10) Baptists (17) barking (23) Barton Warren Stone (8) Benjamin Seth Youngs (9) bodily exercises (33) camp meetings (29) convulsions (16) dancing (56) diseases (11) exhorting (10) falling (32) Issachar Bates (9) jerker tales (16) jerking (98) jumping (12) Kentucky (51) laughing (17) Lexington (Ky.) (8) Methodists (47) nerves/nervous affection (15) New Lights (22) New York (10) North Carolina (16) Ohio (22) Pennsylvania (20) Philadelphia (Pa.) (18) praying (13) preaching (39) Presbyterians (66) revivals (43) Richard McNemar (9) Rockbridge County (Va.) (8) running (17) sacrament (17) Shakers (19) shouting (22) singing (26) society meetings (10) sympathy (15) Tennessee (43) Turtlecreek Township (Ohio) (10) Virginia (26) Warren County (Ohio) (8) West Virginia (8)

For more information or to report technology issues, contact Douglas Winiarski, Religious Studies Department, University of Richmond, at dwiniars@richmond.edu.

Designed by Elegant Themes | Powered by WordPress