The query below is based on the following note found among the fascinating papers of Lexington, Ky, merchant John Wesley Hunt (a recent arrival from New Jersey by way of several years in Richmond and Norfolk) at the King Library, University of Kentucky (which I transcribe in full):
Sir: You will please Send me two pounds of powder and Six pounds of Le[a]d[.] This favour I ask on Account of a Squirrel Hunt please to Let me have Good powder as I have a Barbeque Depending[.] Your Friendly Complyance shall be acknowledged by your s[ervant] etc.
John South
Mr. Hunt Lexington [Ky] May 19th 1796
The term "Barbeque" is commonplace in Kentucky newspapers in the decade from statehood to the Louisiana Purchase - frequently mentioned, for example, in connection with celebrations of elections, the Fourth of July, and news of the acquisition of Louisiana (the latter being my immediate interest).
The OED traces the noun "barbeque" to Haiti and Guiana originally as a description of woven platforms of sticks for sleeping or for curing, drying, or cooking meat and other foodstuffs. Then by the early 18th century the noun was being used to describe an iron grill for cooking (OED example is from 1736), from which derives the OED's third noun definition (earliest example is 1809), the familiar an American noun describing a large festive gathering of people at which meat was cooked outdoors and served with liberal amounts of other provisions. (The OED doesn't mention whiskey among those liberal provisions, but Kentucky newspapers do.)
So much is familiar background to us all, but my query concerns alternative readings of John South's "Squirrel Hunt" and, perhaps, his choice of the word "Depending." Thus:
1) At first blush I'm inclined to think that John South regarded a squirrel hunt as the sport or competition at his Barbeque (not unlike a turkey shoot) - and that it was in that sense that his entertainment depended on good powder and lead. If so, one might guess that his guests were shooting at squirrels but feasting on barbequed pork or beef.
2) Alternatively, if John South could have been depending on shot and powder to hunt and barbeque squirrels. I generally think of squirrel for the in light of a recent NPR story describing a traditional Appalachian-country regard for roasted squirrel brains as a great delicacy.
In either case, "depending" could simply mean something akin to "planned," but regardless of that, can anyone shed light on what John South may have had in mind for his Barbeque?
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