Silas Deane

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Silas Deane
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Key Ideas

1. Define History.
2. Describe the process historians use to determine
   history.
3. How do historians know when their research is
   complete?

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History
History is what happened in the past. What
really happened. Historians bring the past to
the present, without distorting it
Historians Messengers ? Wrong!
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Historyaccording to Davidson and Lytle

• History is not what happened in the past
  rather, it is the act of selecting, analyzing,
  and writing about the past. It is something that
  is done, that is constructed, rather than an
  inert body of data that lies scattered through
  the archives.
• page XIX
• Being courier to the past is not enough. For
  better or worse, historians inescapably leave an
  imprint as they go about their business asking
  interesting questions about apparently dull
  facts, seeing connections between subjects that
  had not seemed related before, shifting and
  rearranging evidence until it assumes a coherent
  pattern. The past is not history, only the raw
  material of it. How those raw materials come to
  be fashioned and shaped is the central concern of
  the rest of this book.
• page XXIX

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Facts

• Historians collect, gather, select and then
  organize facts ? History
• Sources may matter
• http//www.foxnews.com/
• http//www.huffingtonpost.com/
• These will be where the facts of the future are
  harvested by historians

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Historyaccording to Davidson and Lytle

• Summary
• Facts Methods History

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Silas Deane

• minor American diplomat to
• France
• Ilya Lichtenstein
• a second-rate diplomat
• D.R. Lewis
• Deane does not appear in
• most American history texts,
• and rightly so. He served
• as a distinctly second-rank
• diplomat
• Davison and Lytle

Second-rate or Founding Father?
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Facts I

• Deane is sent to Paris to help conclude a treaty
  of alliance
• Arthur Lee accuses him of cheating his country to
  make a private profit
• Deane writes letters that make him unpopular in
  America
• He goes into exile and nearly starves
• Helped out by a gentleman friend, he buys passage
  on a ship for America as his last chance to
  redeem himself
• He takes ill and dies before the ship can leave
  rumors suggest he may have committed suicide

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Facts II

• Ben Franklin and Arthur Lee are members of the
  delegation to Paris
• Edward Bancroft is Deanes private secretary and
  an American spy
• Men who know Deane say he is talented but
  ambitious and ought to be watched

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Facts III

• Before Deane leaves, he visits an American
  artist, John Trumbull
• The Boston Packet is delayed for several days by
  a storm
• On the last day of his life, Deane gets out of
  bed in the morning
• He puts on his clothes and buckles his shoes
  (last day of life)
• He eats breakfast (last day of life)
• When he takes ill, he tries to speak twice
• He is buried several days later

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Historian ? Julian Boyd

• Helped out by a gentleman friend, he buys
  passage on a ship for America as his last chance
  to redeem himself
• Before Deane leaves, he visits an American
  artist, John Trumbull
• ?
• (The Boston Packet is delayed for several days by
  a storm)

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Suicide?
J. Cutting
Bancroft
T. Paine
T. Jefferson
Anonymous obituaries
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Edward Bancroft

• Friend of Silas Deane
• Physician
• Spy for the USA

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Facts revisited

• Deane is sent to Paris to help conclude a treaty
  of alliance
• Arthur Lee accuses him of cheating his country to
  make a private profit
• Deane writes letters that make him unpopular in
  America
• He goes into exile and nearly starves
• Helped out by a gentleman friend, he buys passage
  on a ship for America as his last chance to
  redeem himself
• He takes ill and dies before the ship can leave
  rumors suggest he may have committed suicide

• Deane is sent to Paris to help conclude a treaty
  of alliance
• Arthur Lee accuses him of cheating his country to
  make a private profit
• Deane writes letters that make him unpopular in
  America
• He goes into exile and nearly starves
• Helped out by a gentleman friend, he buys passage
  on a ship for America as his last chance to
  redeem himself
• He takes ill and dies before the ship can leave
  rumors suggest he may have committed suicide

Deane is going back to America!
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Edward Bancroft

• Friend of Silas Deane
• Physician
• Spy for the USA
• Double Agent?

What does Deanes return to the United States
mean to Bancroft?
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Silas Deane
Write down the facts you would include in a
brief biography of Silas Deane. Use the stick
figure to create symbols of key items in your
biography.
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(No Transcript)
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Facts

• Deane is sent to Paris to help conclude a treaty
  of alliance
• Arthur Lee accuses him of cheating his country to
  make a private profit
• Deane writes letters that make him unpopular in
  America
• He goes into exile and nearly starves
• Helped out by a gentleman friend, he buys passage
  on a ship for America as his last chance to
  redeem himself
• He takes ill and dies before the ship can leave
  rumors suggest he may have committed suicide
• Ben Franklin and Arthur Lee are members of the
  delegation to Paris
• Edward Bancroft is Deanes private secretary and
  an American spy
• Men who know Deane say he is talented but
  ambitious and ought to be watched
• Before Deane leaves, he visits an American
  artist, John Trumbull
• The Boston Packet is delayed for several days by
  a storm
• On the last day of his life, Deane gets out of
  bed in the morning
• He puts on his clothes and buckles his shoes
  (last day of life)
• He eats breakfast (last day of life)
• When he takes ill, he tries to speak twice
• He is buried several days later

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Facts I

• Deane is sent to Paris to help conclude a treaty
  of alliance
• Arthur Lee accuses him of cheating his country to
  make a private profit
• Deane writes letters that make him unpopular in
  America
• He goes into exile and nearly starves
• Helped out by a gentleman friend, he buys passage
  on a ship for America as his last chance to
  redeem himself
• He takes ill and dies before the ship can leave
  rumors suggest he may have committed suicide