21.25" length. 1.5" blade length. 4.6" head length. Single headed belt axe with skull cracker and long shaft, and a screw installed functioning as a fastening wedge. Item is unmarked, but was previously sold at auction having been consigned by its original family and related to have once belonged to a member of the Paxton Boys. Comes with no provenance papers.

Formed in 1763, ostensibly to protect settlers during Pontiac's War, the "Paxton Boys" were a vigilante group that is most famous for the murder of 20 Conestoga during the winter of 1763. Formed by Scots-Irish settlers, the Paxton Boys insisted that the Native Americans were "Canaanites" as justification for their brutal assaults. In the case of the Conestoga tribe, the fact they were neutral during Pontiac's war did nothing to dissuade the contempt of vigilante groups. Rather, the vigilantes believed the Conestoga were secretly aiding the Lenape, and attacked their small village with a force of up to 50 men. None of the vigilantes were ever held accountable for the murders, and only a few of their number were publicly unmasked.