From internal evidence
it would appear that this was the first or one of the first vessels
used for the purpose and that Slade and the other prisoners with him
were the first of the American soldiers thus confined. At any rate,
throughout his diary he makes no mention of other bands of prisoners
in the same condition The few small pages of this little diary, which
was always kept in the possession of his family until it was deposited
in the Sheldon Museum, of Middlebury, Vt, contain a plain record of
every-day life throughout a period of great suffering. They do not
discuss questions of State and policy, but they do seem to me to bring
clearly before the mind's eye conditions as they existed, and perhaps
more clearly than elaborate treatises to give a picture of the
sufferings of soldiers and sailors who preferred to endure all
privations, hardships, and death itself rather than to renounce their
allegiance to their country and enlist under the British flag.
The first entry in the Slade diary was made November 16, 1776, and the
last January 28, 1777, so it covers about ten weeks.
The entries were as follows:
Fort Washington the 16th day November A.D. 1776. This day I, William
Slade was taken with 2,800 more. We was allowed honours of War. We
then marched to Harlem under guard, where we were turned into a
barn. We got little rest that night being verry much crowded, as some
trouble [illegible].
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