Stocketon would have been neither the first nor last person in history to do the unthinkable while captured.
Remember Steve Centanni and his photographer ‘converting’ to Islam? Sometimes you do what you have to do. If it spares your life or your family’s life, you can make amends later. If they kill you, you can no longer serve any cause or purpose other than martyrdom.
Yup.
... Richard Stockton, despite his impaired health,
[took] a new oath of allegiance to the state of New
Jersey in December, 1777- That oath is preserved
in the state’s archives.