THE PENNSYLVANIA PACKET, Philadelphia, Nov. 20, 1779

• Ethan Allen captivity
• Revolutionary War original

Most of the front page is taken up with an Act of the Pennsylvania Legislature, prefaced with a paragraph signed in type by the Clerk of the General Assembly, none other than: Thomas Paine.
Page 3 has yet another Act which is prefaced with an intro signed: Thomas Paine. 
All of page 4 is taken up with the continued "Narrative of Colonel Ethan Allen's Treatment during his Captivity." which is then continued in a future issue (see photos for portions).
Complete in 4 pages, never-trimmed margins, very handsome & ornate masthead, very nice condition.

Background: The November 20, 1779 issue of The Pennsylvania Packet—published in Philadelphia by John Dunlap, the printer responsible for the first official broadside of the Declaration of Independence—is an exceptionally rare and historically significant primary source owing to its extensive front-line coverage of Revolutionary War captivity. Dedicating the entire fourth page to serializing Ethan Allen's primary memoir, A Narrative of Colonel Ethan Allen’s Captivity (first published in book form earlier that year by Robert Bell), this issue captures a pivotal moment in American wartime propaganda. Allen's vivid, polemical account detailed the brutal conditions, starvation, and inhumane treatment he and fellow patriots endured aboard British prison ships and in New York jails following his September 1775 capture near Montreal. Original 18th-century printings of the Packet containing Allen's narrative are highly sought after by collectors and institutions alike, as single-issue survivals carrying extensive, multi-column continuations of iconic Revolutionary memoirs are exceedingly scarce on the antiquarian market.