"Skip to My Lou" is a popular children's song. It was a popular American partner-stealing dance from the 1840s. It was also a popular lyrical game in Abraham Lincoln's youth in southern Indiana and Kentucky (1826). In early America, especially in the rural South, some fundamentalist religious groups regarded the fiddle as a tool of the devil (since it led to dancing, which was regarded as sinful). Faced with such a religious obstacle to socializing, young people developed the “play-party”, in which the objectionable features of dancing were removed or masked. The dancers sang (no instruments were allowed) and the audience clapped to create rhythm for their own music. The play-party became a popular pastime for teenagers and young married couples. As people moved westward, square dancing and barn dancing became acceptable.