Why is a country dance sometimes called a hoedown?

First used in the early 1800’s, this term referred to a dance based on the movements of hoeing corn and potatoes, which was the primary entertainment at “hoedown parties” held in the early fall in the American midwest. It soon came to encompass the party itself, which was also call a “hoe-dig” or, in Iowa in the 1850s, a “rakedown”.