The Strange Death of Silas Deane is an article which tries to dispel the everyday notion of history, which is that

it is what happened in the past. It does this by giving the story of Silas Deane. Silas Deane was a son of a blacksmith who through effort and will, climbed up the social ladder and became a successful businessman. However, not content, he went into politics. He became an ambassador, trying to recruit help for the Revolutionary Army. His success was likely because of his ambition. However this ambition led to distrust and an eventual controversy blaming him of using his position to amass wealth. This was followed by another controversy in 1781, where his letters to friends were intercepted. These letters contained a recommendation that America should try to reconcile with England. These letters were published in a New York newspaper and he was now thought of as a traitor. This left him with no place to go, with America branding him a traitor and going to England would confirm that suspicion. He eventually took residence in Flanders. The rest of his life was spent miserable and later moved to England where took to drinking. He then tried to go back to American and died while traveling. However, his cause of death is uncertain. His death was thought to be suicide by an overdose of opium, or perhaps an untimely sickness. This story helps to show the real meaning of history by showing that history is not all the information or what happened. If that were the case, then his history would be littered with trivial information like what he wore everyday and what he ate, which in the wide scheme of things are unimportant and lack significance. Those pieces of information do not help to clear up his death. However, by looking at his associates one sees the involvement of Bancroft, who was Deanes dear friend. Bancroft, using Deanes position was an double agent passing information to the British. One would think that Deane would know about this and even perhaps be involved in it himself, which is very possible. This is further proved when Deane directed suspicion toward men he knew for a fact were not spies. However, when Deane decided to go back to America, his death now has a new possibility. Could he have been poisoned by Bancroft? This is a very possible outcome as Bancroft would have been afraid of Deane spilling his secrets. He also knew how to administer and had poisons from Guiana. The death of Silas Deane is very interesting because it shows that history is not set in stone. Historians are forced to infer and guess to create ones history. Thus what really happened cannot be completely determined until more evidence is revealed creating a history woven by carefully chosen facts which are unrelated by themselves but create a picture by combining them all.

This article is about the brutality that Columbus brought to America. This destruction originated from Europe, where violence was everywhere. An example of this was when Huguenots were killed and their body parts were sold in the streets. Also, witch hunts were rampant. Children were abandoned and sold into slavery. All of this was brought by Columbus causing the American Holocaust. Columbus made little attempts to negotiate with the natives instead enslaving and killing them. These conditions were made worse by the disease the sailors brought with them. The natives had no immunity to these disease and many died from them. This brutality was clearly shown after Columbus became sick and his men went on a rampage. In one particular example, they tortured and killed over 20,000, including children and women.

This article is about the first people who went to America. The Europeans who went were very varied coming from Swedish, English, Dutch and, French origin. Some came for religious freedom like William Penn, and the French Huguenots who were persecuted by the Catholic and Anglican/ English Churches respectably. However, most were English. This was likely from Londons high poverty and criminal class. Many went to America for work, because there was an inexhaustible demand for labor in America. This was much more promising then the life they had in England. However, moving to America was not always the answer to all their problems. For example, many people came over as indentured servants. These servants were taken advantage of, especially the women. They extended their servitude by getting the women pregnant among other tactics. Thus, America was a place of opportunity but not without its faults.