from the book Uncle Gabe Tucker; or Reflection, Song, and Sentiment in the Quarters, by John Alfred Macon, written in 1882, published in Philadelphia 1883. p. 26-28.
https://archive.org/stream/unclegabetucker00macogoog#page/n34/mode/2up
This description is of a four couple square dance. Not sure of the location as this writer works in the imagination. It’s somewhere in the southern United States, likely Arkansas. The whole book is set in slave quarters. There is a fiddler and a caller. Might be a quadrille because the prompt is “Head couples forward.”
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ON DANCING.
”Uncle Gabe, is it wrong to dance?” some one asked the old man as he sat by the fire mending the broom.
” ‘Ax me no questions, I’ll tell you no lies,’ ” answered Uncle Gabe, apparently not disposed to engage in conversation. There was a short silence in the cabin, and then the old man spoke without further questioning :
“S’posin’ dey ax you does you like mushmilions, what you gwine tell ’em ? You gwine say, right orf, you like ’em, ’cause you does like ’em; but dat don’t mean you like green mushmilions, nor rotten mushmilions, do it? Co’se it don’t. Well, so ’tis wid dancin’. De right sort o’ dancin’ don’t hu’t nobody ; but dar’s some dancin’ dat wa’n’t made for ‘specterble people.
“Now, las’ Sat’day night I was ten miles up de creek in de Sixteen’ Section, an’ dey got up a dance dat was de wrong sort, sho! De thing didn’t look right at de very start, an’ I knowed trouble was comin’ ; dey had all sorts o’ outlandish niggers on hand, an’ eben down to some Injuns fum de counties j’inin’ on de wes’. Well, ’twas a public sort o’ thing an’ eb’rybody was boss. Well, arterwhile de fiddler got on a borrul an’ went to chunin’ up. Den he started orf, an’ de prompter he gun out de wuds, ‘head couples, forrud!’ Den you jes’ oughter seen what a mess ’twas! All de dancers in de room come right togedder in a pile, an’ sich a-jammin’ an’ a-pushin’ an’ a-stumblin’ ’bout, you nebber did see; an’ it all come ’bout jes’ dis way: nobody didn’t know which was de head couples; de Sixteen’ Section niggers ‘lowed dey was de head couples ’cause dey was dancin’ ‘cordin’ to de cracks in de flo’ ; an’ de Slab Town niggers ‘lowed dey was de head couples ’cause dey was dancin’ ‘cordin’ to de fireplace; an’ de cracks an’ de fire-place didn’t run togedder as dey does in mos’ houses. Well, dey got to squabblin’ pow’ful ; de Sixteen’ Section stood up for de cracks an’ Slab Town stood up for de fireplace. Dey was ’bout to start out fightin’, an somebody blowed out de lights, an’ de whole thing busted up an’ de folks went ‘way mad as yaller jackits.
“Now dat sort o’ dancin’ is wus’n none, an’ you young folks better keep ‘way fum dat sort o’ doin’s. Ef you gwine to dance, why, dance at de right time, in de right place, an’ wid de right sort o’ folks. Ef you go to de right sort o’ party, ’tain’t no mo’ harm dancin’ dan ’tis settin’ in de cornder talkin’ ’bout coon-tracks. ‘Tain’t no harm to hab pledger, ef ’tis de right kind o’ pledger. Sassages is good things tell de sassage-man gits to mistookin’ de dorg-house for de hog-pen, an’ dat sort o’ alters de case. Blackberries is good ‘nough tell you shet down on one whar one o’ des outlandish-smellin’ bugs been roostin’ all night. An’ so ’tis wid eb’ry sort o’ ‘joyment. ‘Tain’t no sin in de right sort o’ dancin’ an’ de right sort o’ music. I b’liebe it gin’ally make folks better. I don’t b’liebe old Satan kin play a fiddle or dance a jig to save his life. He got too much wuk to do to fool ‘long o’ dem sort o’ things.
“You see, we’s all wukin’ in de vinyud, in de hopes o’ de life to come. We’s got a big job befo’ us, an’ we got to be keerful what we do an’ which way we go. But ef a man weed his row ‘cordin’ to his power an’ his knowledge, I don’t b’liebe de Lord will watch him too close ef he let go de hoe-handle once in a while to spit on his hands, or ef he ‘casionally takes a bite orf de ripe bunches on de gra’-vines.”
Square Dancing in the 1800s 