Abstract
AS A YOUNG WOMAN, NANCY WILLIAMS JOINED OTHER ENSLAVED PEOPLE
and “cou’tin’ couples” who would “slip ‘way” to an “ole cabin” a few miles from the Virginia plantation where she lived. Deep in the woods, away from slaveholding eyes, they held secret parties, where they amused themselves dancing, performing music, drinking alcohol, and courting. A religious woman in her old age, Williams admitted only reluctantly to her interviewer that she had enjoyed the secular pleasures of dressing up and going to these outlaw dances. “Dem de day’s when me’n de devil was runnin roun in de depths o’ hell. No, don’ even wanna talk ’bout it,” she said. However, Williams ultimately agreed to discuss the outlaw parties she had attended, reasoning, “Guess I didn’ know no better den,” and remembering with fondness that, after all,
“[d]em dances was somepin.”‘
Musicians played fiddles, tambourines, banjos, and “two sets o’ [cow] bones” for the dancers. Williams was a gifted and enthusiastic dancer; she would get “out dere in de middle o’ de flo’ jes’ a-da me an Jennie, an’ de devil. Dancin’ wid a glass o’ water on m an’ three boys a bettin’ on me”