Excerpt from the South Union Shakers’ “Graveyard Book” (ca. 1807)
“[Robert Pearce] Lived about 79 years; came to believers when about 40 years old, rec’d Faith through one Mikel Dodd; who told him that he was jerked about like a circus actor….”
Excerpt from the Autobiography of Rev. Joseph Travis (ca. 1807)
“I can never forget one Sabbath, standing on a floor to preach: Brother Christie, a pious and upright man, the class-leader, was standing close by me; and while we were repeating and singing the first hymn, he was taken with the jerks, knocked the hymn book out of my hand, and gave my unfortunate nose a hard rap….”
Excerpts from Joseph Thomas’s Life of the Pilgrim (Fall 1808–Spring 1809)
“[W]hile [I was] preaching a young woman was taken with the jirks…, and the people being mostly strangers to the like were much alarmed at the operation, as she was frequently jirked from her seat and thrown involuntarily over the floor and across the benches in different directions….”
Excerpt from the Journal of Constant Moseley (June 6, 1808)
“Had meeting at Robert Houstens. A Blessed assembly of people, white, Yellow, & black…. [I]n singing our Songs, the power of God came upon them, some fell with jurks, Some leaping, some dancing. The whole multitude were in motion….”
Excerpt from Eli W. Caruthers’s “Richard Hugg King and His Times” (ca. 1808)
“As for jerking, dancing, & barking, they were only fungi, which grew out of the revival in its state of decay & ought never to be imputed to the work itself….”
