Chicken thief gun

[J. A. EARLY]

The engraved scene fascinates me. I do not think he is a chicken thief. A chicken thief would not have a gun, would he?

In reading about George Washington and his plantations, illegal hunters were dealt with harshly, in accordance with English tradition whereby only those with permission to hunt the plantation were allowed to do so. Even the slaves were rewarded for catching illegal hunters, and they were told to respond to the sound of any shots heard on the four plantations.

You have a man with some type of fowl in hand, and I agree it does look like a chicken, but then you have a man with a whip closely approaching (under armed I would say). The picket fence does indicate a domestic scene though, and not in the wild. The dog has a collar, indicating domesticated and probably associated with the man and the whip.

Secondly, the man is a gentleman, with tall boots, wearing a coatee (I think the coatee tails in the air, but can't tell), and he has sideburns. I have no idea what is attached to the top tails of the coatee. Again, he has a weapon. I wish I knew what the engraver was relaying to the viewer or what the owner requested from Parker in this scene. Lost to time.

Perhaps a poacher?