{"id":1757,"date":"2016-11-01T06:47:43","date_gmt":"2016-11-01T10:47:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jerkshistory\/?p=1757"},"modified":"2019-02-17T15:12:42","modified_gmt":"2019-02-17T20:12:42","slug":"cleland1813-01","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jerkshistory\/2016\/11\/01\/cleland1813-01\/","title":{"rendered":"Excerpt from a Letter from Thomas Cleland to Ashbel Green (August 23, 1812)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Presbyterian minister Thomas Cleland included a short description of the jerks in this excerpt from his report of a missionary tour through southside Kentucky in 1812. Although he countenanced the jerks earlier in his career (click here<\/a>), Cleland described this incident in negative terms in his letter to Ashbel Green and two decades later\u00a0<\/span>in the Biblical Repertory and Theological Review<\/em>\u00a0(click here<\/a>). Contextual notes appear in square brackets.<\/span><\/p>\n

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[August] 23rd. [1812.] Rode 10 miles & Preached at Liberty in the court-house to an affectionate audience in a Baptist settlement. The house was crouded. They were attentive until I had finished my discourse & had prayed. Was able to sing the last hymn but was forestalled by an enthusiastic kind of man who started a song with a lively tune. Several young women began to Jirk backward & foreward. The seats were immediately removed to afford room & prevent them from being hurt. One young woman had what I would call the whirling exercise. She went round like a top, I think at least 50 times in a minute & continued without the smallest intermission for at least an hour. It far exceeded anything of the kind I ever saw. I was told that she had had the jirks nearly 3 years. She did not appear exhausted, complained of pain if the bystanders did not continue singing. I became perfectly tired. My preaching seemed to be all gone & to have been rather in the way from what took place. Afterwards I remonstrated with some of them and cautioned them.<\/div>\n

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Source<\/h3>\n

Thomas Cleland to Ashbel Green, March 13, 1813, box 60, Simon Gratz Autograph Collection, 1517\u20131925, Collection 0250B, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.
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“One young woman had what I would call the whirling exercise<\/i>…. It far exceeded anything of the kind I ever saw. I was told that she had had the jirks<\/i> nearly 3 years…. Afterwards I remonstrated with some of them and cautioned them.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":353,"featured_media":1764,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[86440,86455,95970,86335,86450,86407,95355],"tags":[93461,86369,95076,38175,86353,86335,95075,86340,86341,38081,95355,94915],"class_list":["post-1757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-1810-1815","category-correspondence","category-historical-society-of-pennsylvania","category-kentucky","category-other-bodily-exercises-general-references","category-presbyterians-denominations","category-thomas-cleland","tag-ashbel-green","tag-baptists","tag-casey-county-ky","tag-hymns","tag-jerking","tag-kentucky","tag-liberty-ky","tag-preaching","tag-presbyterians","tag-singing","tag-thomas-cleland","tag-whirling"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jerkshistory\/files\/2019\/01\/Clelland1812-1080.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jerkshistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jerkshistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jerkshistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jerkshistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/353"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jerkshistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jerkshistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jerkshistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jerkshistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jerkshistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jerkshistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}