1810-1815, Autobiographies & Biographies, Dancing Exercise, Tennessee Historical Society
“The peopel had the Jirks Shouting and d[a]ncing and…those that atempted to desribe there fealing while ingaged in the above exersize sayed the[y] had the most hevenly fealing that [they] ever felt in the there life….”
1816-1860, American Antiquarian Society, Anonymous/Unknown, Barking Exercise, Dancing Exercise, Dreams, Trances & Visions, Falling Exercise, Laughing Exercise, Magazines & Newspapers, Other Bodily Exercises & General References, Other/Unknown
“I have frequently thought that a history of the singular exercises, called the “Jirks,” and other strange operations which affected the subjects of the great Kentucky Revival, would be interesting to my readers….”
1816-1860, James J. McDaniel, Magazines & Newspapers, Other/Unknown
“About 1822–3…, I attended a camp-meeting at McCain’s…. [T]here I first saw [Joseph Brown] under religious excitement…. Some years before, those peculiar, involuntary and spasmodic exercises known as ‘jerks,’ had been very common…and [they] continued to effect Col. Brown likely through life….”
1816-1860, Dancing Exercise, Magazines & Newspapers, Methodists
“The character of this revival is the least mixed with what is called irregularities or extravangancies of any that I ever saw. We have had nothing of what is called the jirks or dance among us….”