When Chicken George returns from England and he first sees his wife, he slowly takes off his white gloves as they approach each other. When he wraps his arms around her, the gloves are back on.
Soon after returning home to North Carolina, Chicken George is told, as a free negro, he must leave the state or be re-enslaved per state law. North Carolina had no such law and in fact held the second largest population of free blacks in the south, after Virginia.