Letter from Samuel G. Ramsey to Anne Fleming (November 29, 1803)

Letter from Samuel G. Ramsey to Anne Fleming (November 29, 1803)

“[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….”

Excerpt from the Life of William Capers (ca. 1803)

Excerpt from the Life of William Capers (ca. 1803)

“[P]ersons who were not before known to be at all religious…would suddenly fall to the ground, and become strangely convulsed with what was called the jerks; the head and neck, and sometimes the body also, moving backwards and forwards with spasmodic violence, and so rapidly that the plaited hair of a woman’s head might be heard to crack….”