Verdict on Silas Deane’s Death The Prologue of After the Fact titled, “The Death of Silas Deane” mentions how history is not what it seems because it contains many different perspectives. It also shows the differentiation of important information and overly detailed or “unneeded” information, but of how they may share a connection to the truth. In the prologue, the author describes the life of a man in the 1700s named Silas Deane, who supposedly committed suicide while on a voyage back to the US. The author includes doubts and conclusions which stray away from the theory that “He committed suicide”, and instead raises the question “Did he really commit suicide?”. Silas Deane (1738-1789) was an American diplomat, merchant and politician. His career held a “rags-to-riches” type story which also played out vice versa; as he—in the beginning started out as the son of a blacksmith, where he then was sent to Yale college to eventually study law and become a lawyer. In order to climb up higher in the social ladder, he married a widow and…show more content… For one, letters from Deane around the time of his coming death showed optimism, and this immediately eliminates the possibility that he was depressed on his coming death. The guilt Deane could have had of his bad actions could have been a cause of his suicide; even so, this raises the question “Why would he wait so long to commit suicide for guilt that happened ten years prior?”. Not only that, but if he was looking forward to moving back to the US, why would he kill himself? Deane even complained about dizziness and stomach pains shortly before his death, showing that it was an unwanted death. These arguments all lead up to the fact that there has to be another conclusion, one that is
