U.S. Also juber, jouba. [Negro.] A species of dance or breakdown practised by the plantation-negroes of the southern United States, accompanied by clapping of the hands, patting of the knees and thighs, striking of the feet on the floor, and a refrain in which the word juba is frequently repeated. Also in Comb., as juba-dance, -patting, -shuffle.
c. 1850. Southern Sketches, 98 (Bartlett). Here were Virginia slaves, dancing jigs and clapping ‘juber,’ over a barrel of persimmon beer.
1885. M. Thompson, in Libr. Mag., July, 1/2. On the rude floor of the forecastle, they danced their vigorous hoe-downs, jigs and jubah-shuffles.
1888. A. C. Gordon, in Century Mag., XXXVI. 770/1. The juba-dance and the corn-shucking were equally invested with elements of the unreal and the grotesque.
