Religion played an important part in the lives of frontier settlers.
Instead of the stern Puritanism of colonial New England, the religion of
the West in the early years of the last century was highly evangelistic.
By this time, the Methodist movement had made a large number of converts
and was particularly strong on the frontier. One tireless Methodist
preacher was Lorenzo Dow, often known as “Crazy Dow,” who traveled
throughout the United States during a long ministry. Though he lived
until 1834, the selection that follows comes from his journal of 1804,
when he visited Tennessee at the age of 27. He was then traveling about
ten thousand miles a year by horse and on foot over trails and primitive
roads. This selection is particularly interesting for its account of a
backwoods religious fervor, almost a physical affliction, described by
Dow as the _jerks_.
Next day I rode forty-five miles in company with Dr. Nelson across the
dismal Allegheny mountains by the warm springs, and on the way a young
man, a traveller, came in (where I breakfasted gratis at an inn) and
said that he had but three sixteenths of a dollar left, having been
robbed of seventy-one dollars on the way; and he being far from home,
I gave him half of what I had with me.
My horse having a navel gall come on his back, I sold him with the
saddle, bridle, cloak and blanket, etc., on credit for about three
fourths of the value, with uncertainty whether I should ever be paid:
thus I crossed the river French Broad in a canoe and set out for my
appointment; but fearing I should be behind the time, I hired a man
(whom I met on the road with two horses) to carry me five miles in
haste for three shillings; which left me but one sixteenth of a
dollar. In our speed he observed there was a nigh way by which I could
clamber the rocks and cut off some miles: so we parted; he having not
gone two thirds of the way yet insisted on the full sum.
I took to my feet the nigh way as fast as I could pull on, as
intricate as it was, and came to a horrid ledge of rocks on the bank
of the river where there was no such thing as going round; and to
clamber over would be at the risk of my life, as there was danger of
slipping into the river. However, being unwilling to disappoint the
people, I pulled off my shoes, and with my handkerchief fastened them
about my neck, and creeping upon my hands and feet with my fingers and
toes in the cracks of the rocks with difficulty I got safe over. In
about four miles I came to a house and hired a woman to take me over
the river in a canoe, for my remaining money and a pair of scissors;
the latter of which was the chief object with her: so our extremities
are other’s opportunities. Thus with difficulty I got to my
appointment in Newport in time.
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; which reports at first I considered as
vague and false. But at length, like the Queen of Sheba, I set out to
go and see for myself and sent over these appointments into this
country accordingly.
When I arrived in sight of this town, I saw hundreds of people
collected in little bodies; and observing no place appointed for
meeting, before I spoke to any, I got on a log and gave out an hymn;
which caused them to assemble round, in solemn attentive silence. I
observed several involuntary motions in the course of the meeting,
which I considered as a specimen of the jerks. I rode seven miles
behind a man across streams of water and held meeting in the evening,
being ten miles on my way.
In the night I grew uneasy, being twenty-five miles from my
appointment for next morning at eleven o’clock; I prevailed on a young
man to attempt carrying me with horses until day, which he thought was
impracticable, considering the darkness of the night and the thickness
of the trees. Solitary shrieks were heard in these woods, which he
told me were said to be the cries of murdered persons. At day we
parted, being still seventeen miles from the spot, and the ground
covered with a white frost. I had not proceeded far before I came to a
stream of water from the springs of the mountain, which made it
dreadful cold; in my heated state I had to wade this stream five times
in the course of about an hour, which I perceived so affected my body
that my strength began to fail. Fears began to arise that I must
disappoint the people, till I observed some fresh tracks of horses
which caused me to exert every nerve to overtake them in hopes of aid
or assistance on my journey, and soon I saw them on an eminence. I
shouted for them to stop, till I came up; they inquired what I wanted;
I replied I had heard there was meeting at Seversville by a stranger
and was going to it. They replied that they had heard that a crazy man
was to hold forth there and were going also; and perceiving that I was
weary, they invited me to ride, and soon our company was increased to
forty or fifty who fell in with us on the road, from different
plantations. At length I was interrogated, whether I knew anything
about the preacher. I replied. “I have heard a good deal about him,
and have heard him preach, but I have no great opinion of him.” And
thus the conversation continued for some miles before they found me
out, which caused some color and smiles in the company.
Thus I got on to meeting, and after taking a cup of tea gratis, I
began to speak to a vast audience; and I observed about thirty to have
the _jerks_. Though they strove to keep still as they could, these
emotions were involuntary, and irresistible, as any unprejudiced eye
might discern. Lawyer Porter (who had come a considerable distance)
got his heart touched under the word and being informed how I came to
meeting, voluntarily lent me a horse to ride near one hundred miles
and gave me a dollar, though he had never seen me before.
Hence to Marysville, where I spoke to about one thousand five hundred;
and many appeared to feel the word, but about fifty felt the jerks. At
night I lodged with one of the Nicholites, a kind of Quakers who do
not feel free to wear coloured clothes. I spoke to a number of people
at his house that night. Whilst at tea I observed his daughter (who
sat opposite to me at the table) to have the jerks; and dropped the
tea cup from her hand in the violent agitation. I said to her, “Young
woman, what is the matter?” She replied, “I have got the jerks.” I
asked her how long she had it? She observed “a few days” and that it
had been the means of the awakening and conversion of her soul by
stirring her up to serious consideration about her careless state,
etc.
Sunday, February 19th, I spoke in Knoxville to hundreds more than
could get into the court house, the Governor being present. About one
hundred and fifty appeared to have jerking exercise, among whom was a
circuit preacher (Johnson) who had opposed them a little before, but
he now had them powerfully; and I believe he would have fallen over
three times had not the auditory been so crowded that he could not,
unless he fell perpendicularly.
After meeting I rode eighteen miles to hold meeting at night. The
people of this settlement were mostly Quakers; and they had said (as I
was informed) the Methodists and Presbyterians have the _jerks_
because they _sing_ and _pray_ so much, but we are a still peaceable
people, wherefore we do not have them. However, about twenty of them
came to meeting, to hear one, as was said, somewhat in a Quaker line,
but their usual stillness and silence was interrupted; for about a
dozen of them had the jerks as keen and as powerful as any I had seen,
so as to have occasioned a kind of grunt or groan when they would
jerk. It appears that many have undervalued the great revival, and
attempted to account for it altogether on natural principles;
therefore it seems to me (from the best judgment I can form) that God
hath seen proper to take this method, to convince people, that he will
work in a way to show his power; and sent the _jerks_ as a sign of the
times, partly in judgment for the people’s unbelief, and yet as a
mercy to convict people of divine realities.