1801
Cain Ridge
The 1835 account of Cain Ridge by Barton W. Stone
Disciples of Christ
From: Memorials of Methodism in Virginia: 1772-1829, by William W. Bennett, 1870 p430-435:
We give another and fuller account furnished by Rev. Barton W. Stone, a prominent minister of the Presbyterian Church, and a witness of many of the scenes he describes:
"The bodily agitation's or exercises attending the excitement ill the beginning of this century were
various, and called by various names, as the falling exercise, the jerks, the dancing exercise, the barking . exercise, the laughing and singing exercises, and so on. The falling exercise was very common among all cases, the saints and sinners of every .age and: grade, from the philosopher to the clown. The subjects of this exercise would generally, with a piercing scream, fall like a log on the floor or earth, and appear as dead. Of thousands of similar cases, I will mention one: At a meeting two gay young ladies, sisters, were standing together, attending the exercises and preaching at the same time, when in they both fell with a shriek of distress, and lay for more than an hour apparently in a lifeless state; Their mother, a pious Baptist, was in great distress, fearing they would not survive. At length they began to exhibit signs of life, by crying fervently for mercy, and then relapsed into the same death-like state, with an awful gloom on their countenances after a while the gloom on the face of one was succeeded by a heavenly smile, and she cried out, 'Precious Jesus!' and spoke of the glory of the gospel to the surrounding crowd in language almost super-human and exhorted all to repentance. In a little while after the other sister was similarly exercised. From that time they became remarkably pious members of the Church.
"I have seen very many pious persons fall in the same way, from a sense of the dander of their unconverted children, brothers, or sisters, or: from a sense of the danger of their neighbors in a sinful world. I have heard them agonizing in tears, and strongly crying for mercy to be shown to sinners, speaking like angels all around.
"The jerks cannot be so easily described. Sometimes the subject of the jerks would be affected in some one member of the body, and sometimes in the whole system. When the head alone was affected, it would be jerked backward or forward, or from side to side, so quickly that the features of the face could not be distinguished. When the whole system was affected, I have seen the person stand in one place, and jerk backward and forward in quick succession, the head nearly touching the floor behind and before. All classes, saints and sinners, the strong as well as the weak, were thus affected.. I have inquired of these se thus affected if they could not account for it, but some have told me that those were among the happiest seasons of their lives. I have seen some wicked persons thus affected, and all the time cursing the jerks, while they. were thrown to the earth with violence.
Though so awful to behold, I do not remember that any one of the thousands I have seen thus affected ever sustained any bodily injury. This, was as strange as the exercise itself.
The dancing exercise generally began with the jerks, and was peculiar to professors of religion. The subject, after jerking a while, began to dance, and then the jerks would cease Such dancing was indeed heavenly to the spectators. There was nothing in it like levity, nor calculated to excite levity in the beholders. The smile of heaven shone on the countenance of the subject, and assimilated to angels appeared the whole person. Sometimes the motion was quick, and sometimes slow. Thus they continued to move forward and backward in the same track or alley till nature seemed exhausted, and they would fall prostrate on the floor or earth, unless caught by those standing by. While thus exercised, I have heard their solemn praises and prayers ascend to God.
"The barking exercises, as opposers contemptuously called it, was nothing. but the jerks. A person thus affected, especially in his head, would often make a grunt t or. bark, from the suddenness of the jerk. This name of barking seems to had its origin an old Presbyterian preacher of East Tennessee.: He had gone into the woods for private devotion, and seized with the jerks. Standing ding near a sapling, he caught hold of it to prevent his falling; and, as his head jerked back, he uttered a grunt, or a kind noise similar to a bark, his face being turned upward. .Some wag discovered him in this position, and reported that he had found the old preacher barking up a tree.
"The laughing exercise was frequent, confirmed solely to the religious. It was a loud, hearty laughter, but it excited laughter in none that saw it. The subject appeared rapturously solemn, and his laughter produced solemnity in saints and sinners; it was truly indescribable
The running exercise was nothing more than that persons feeling something of these bodily agitations, through fear, attempted to run away, and thus escape from them, but it commonly happened that they ran not far before they fell, when they became so agitated they could no. proceed any farther.
" I knew a young physician, of a celebrated family, who came some distance to a big meeting to see the strange things he had heard of. He and a young lady had sportively agreed to watch over and take care of each other, if either should fall. At length the physician felt something very uncommon, and started from the congregation to run to the woods. He was discovered running as for life, but did not proceed far until he fell down, and there day until he submitted to the Lord, and afterward became a zealous member of the Church. Such cases were common.
The singing exercise is more unaccountable than anything else I ever saw. The subject, in a very happy state of mind, would sing most melodiously, not from the mouth or nose, but entirely in the breast, the sounds issuing thence. Such noise silenced everything, and attracted the attention of all. It was most heavenly; none could ever tire of hearing it. "Thus have I given," says Hr. Stone, "a brief account of the wonderful things that appeared in the great excitement in the beginning of this century. That there were many eccentricities and much fanaticism in this excitement was acknowledged by its warmest advocates. Indeed, it would have been a wonder if such things had not appeared in the circumstances of that time. Yet the good effects were seen and acknowledged in every neighbourhood and among the different sects. It silenced contention and promoted unity for a while."
