Student Lesson

Section 1: What Are Primary Sources?

Primary and Secondary Sources | The Historical Record

Primary and Secondary Sources

Historians use a wide variety of sources to answer questions about the past. In their research, history scholars use both primary sources and secondary sources. Primary sources are actual records that have survived from the past, such as letters, photographs, articles of clothing. Secondary sources are accounts of the past created by people writing about events sometime after they happened.

For example, your history textbook is a secondary source. Someone wrote most of your textbook long after historical events took place. Your textbook may also include some primary sources, such as direct quotes from people living in the past or excerpts from historical documents.

People living in the past left many clues about their lives. These clues include both primary and secondary sources in the form of books, personal papers, government documents, letters, oral accounts, diaries, maps, photographs, reports, novels and short stories, artifacts, coins, stamps, and many other things. Historians call all of these clues together the historical record.

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The Historical Record

The historical record is huge. It contains literally billions of pieces of evidence about the past. Despite its huge size, the historical record gives us just a tiny glimpse of the past. Most of what happened in the past was never documented. Many sources of information about the past have been lost or destroyed. Some primary sources were accumulated simply by accident.

But some historical sources were created and saved by people interested in recording history. People kept journals, wrote diaries and autobiographies, recorded family trees, and saved business and personal letters and papers.

How can the historical record be both huge and limited? What kind of historical records do you leave behind in your daily life?

Do the "Mindwalk Activity" now to help you answer these questions.

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Section 1A: Mindwalk Activity

Limits of the Historical Record | Historical Evidence in Daily Life | Other Types of Historical Evidence

Limits of the Historical Record

How can the historical record be both huge and limited?
To find out about the limitations of the historical record, do the following activity:

1. Think about ("mind walk" through) all the activities you were involved in during the past 24 hours. List as many of these activities as you can remember.
2. For each activity on your list, write down what evidence, if any, your activities might have left behind. To help you think of traces that might be left behind, review:
• Historical Evidence in Your Daily Life
• Other Types of Historical Evidence
3. Review your entire list, and what you wrote about evidence your activities left behind. Then answer these questions:
• Which of your daily activities were most likely to leave trace evidence behind?
• What, if any, of that evidence might be preserved for the future? Why?
• What might be left out of an historical record of your activities? Why?
• What would a future historian be able to tell about your life and your society based on evidence of your daily activities that might be preserved for the future?
4. Now think about a more public event currently happening (a court case, election, public controversy, law being debated), and answer these questions:
• What kinds of evidence might this event leave behind?
• Who records information about this event?
• For what purpose are different records of this event made?
5. Based on this activity, write one sentence that describes how the historical record can be huge and limited at the same time.

When you have finished this activity, go ahead to Analysis of Primary Sources.

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Historical Evidence in Your Daily Life

• Did you create any records of your activities (a diary, notes to yourself, a letter to a friend or relative, an e-mail message, a telephone message)?
• Would traces of your activities appear in records someone else created (a friend's diary, notes, or calendar entry; a letter or e-mail from a friend or relative)?
• Would traces of your activities appear in school records? in business records (did you write a check or use a charge card)? in the school or local newspaper? in government records (did you get your driver's license or go to traffic court)?
• Would anyone be able to offer testimony (or oral history) about your activities (who and why)?

Other Types of Historical Evidence

Other aspects of the historical record are not records at all, but may still offer evidence about our lives. Traces you left behind in your daily activities might include:

• The trash you have thrown away;
• Material objects you use every day (coins, paper money, stamps, computers);
• Objects in the place you live (especially in your own bedroom);
• Items in your locker at school.

Challenge Questions:

If future archaeologists had the materials above, what could they infer or conclude about your life? What might the materials tell archaeologists about your family, community, region, and/or nation?

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Section 2: Analysis of Primary Sources

Time and Place Rule | Bias Rule | Questions for Analyzing Primary Sources

Historians analyze historical sources in different ways. First, historians think about where, when and why a document was created. They consider whether a source was created close in location and time to an actual historical event. Historians also think about the purpose of a source. Was it a personal diary intended to be kept private? Was the document prepared for the public?

Some primary sources may be judged more reliable than others, but every source is biased in some way. As a result, historians read sources skeptically and critically. They also cross-check sources against other evidence and sources. Historians follow a few basic rules to help them analyze primary sources. Read these rules below. Then read the questions for analyzing primary sources. Use these rules and questions as you analyze primary source documents yourself.

Time and Place Rule

To judge the quality of a primary source, historians use the time and place rule. This rule says the closer in time and place a source and it creator were to an event in the past, the better the source will be. Based on the time and place rule, better primary sources (starting with the most reliable) might include:

• Direct traces of the event;
• Accounts of the event, created at the time it occurred, by firsthand observers and participants;
• Accounts of the event, created after the event occurred, by firsthand observers and participants;
• Accounts of the event, created after the event occurred, by people who did not participate or witness the event, but who used interviews or evidence from the time of the event.

Bias Rule

The historians' second rule is the bias rule. It says that every source is biased in some way. Documents tell us only what the creator of the document thought happened, or perhaps only what the creator wants us to think happened. As a result, historians follow these bias rule guidelines when they review evidence from the past:

• Every piece of evidence and every source must be read or viewed skeptically and critically.
• No piece of evidence should be taken at face value. The creator's point of view must be considered.
• Each piece of evidence and source must be cross-checked and compared with related sources and pieces of evidence.

Questions for Analyzing Primary Sources

The following questions may help you judge the quality of primary sources:

1. Who created the source and why? Was it created through a spur-of-the-moment act, a routine transaction, or a thoughtful, deliberate process?
2. Did the recorder have firsthand knowledge of the event? Or, did the recorder report what others saw and heard?
3. Was the recorder a neutral party, or did the creator have opinions or interests that might have influenced what was recorded?
4. Did the recorder produce the source for personal use, for one or more individuals, or for a large audience?
5. Was the source meant to be public or private?
6. Did the recorder wish to inform or persuade others? (Check the words in the source. The words may tell you whether the recorder was trying to be objective or persuasive.) Did the recorder have reasons to be honest or dishonest?
7. Was the information recorded during the event, immediately after the event, or after some lapse of time? How large a lapse of time?

When you have finished reading this section, print out Questions for Analyzing Primary Sources to use later in this lesson.

Then go ahead to Types of Primary Sources.

Section 3: Types of Primary Sources

Published Documents | Unpublished Documents | Oral Traditions/Histories | Visual Documents/Artifacts

When analyzing primary sources, historians consider the type of primary source under study. Different primary sources were created for different reasons. Knowing the different types of primary sources will help you evaluate the reliability of primary sources. Read about the different types of primary sources below.

Published Documents

[The past is behind us.] Gerrit Albertus Beneker (b. 1882). Poster, 1918. The Presidential Election of 1920: Introduction

Some primary sources are published documents. They were created for large audiences and were distributed widely. Published documents include books, magazines, newspapers, government documents, non-government reports, literature of all kinds, advertisements, maps, pamphlets, posters, laws, and court decisions. When reviewing published documents, remember that just because something was published does not make it truthful, accurate, or reliable. Every document has a creator, and every creator has a point of view, blind spots, and biases. Also remember that even biased and opinionated sources can tell us important things about the past.

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Unpublished Documents

[Letter from Mathew Brady to President Abraham Lincoln, asking Lincoln to sit for a photograph], 1865 March 2

Many types of unpublished documents have been saved, and can be used as primary sources. These include personal letters, diaries, journals, wills, deeds, family Bibles containing family histories, school report cards, and many other sources. Unpublished business records such as correspondence, financial ledgers, information about customers, board meeting minutes, and research and development files also give clues about the past. Unpublished documents often come from community organizations, churches, service clubs, political parties, and labor unions in the form of membership lists, meeting minutes, speeches, financial and other records. Government at all levels creates a variety of unpublished records. These include police and court records, census records, tax and voter lists, departmental reports, and classified documents.

Unlike published documents, unpublished records may be difficult to find because few copies exist. For example, personal letters may be found only in the possession of the person to whom the letters were sent. Letters of famous or remarkable people may be collected and eventually published. Keep in mind that letter writers did not intend (and perhaps could not imagine) that their letters would be read by more than one person. Because unpublished documents were seldom meant to be read by the public, they provide interesting clues about the past.

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Oral Traditions/Oral Histories

Delacroix Island, St Bernard Parish, Louisiana. January 1941. A Spanish muskrat trapper in the doorway of his marsh home.

Oral traditions and oral histories provide another way to learn about the past from people with firsthand knowledge of historical events. Recently, spoken words that make up oral histories have gained importance as primary sources. Historians and others find out about the lives of ordinary people through spoken stories and tales. Oral histories provide important historical evidence about people, especially minority groups, who were excluded from mainstream publications or did not leave behind written primary sources. Oral histories are as old as human beings. Before the invention of writing, information passed from generation to generation through the spoken word. Many people around the world continue to use oral traditions to pass along knowledge and wisdom. Interviews and recordings of community elders and witnesses to historical events provide exciting stories, anecdotes, and other information about the past.

Visual Documents and Artifacts

Mulberry Street, New York City [1900]

Visual documents include photographs, films, paintings, and other types of artwork. Because visual documents capture moments in time, they can provide evidence of changes over time. Visual documents include evidence about a culture at specific moments in history: its customs, preferences, styles, special occasions, work, and play. Like other primary source documents, a visual document has a creator with a point of view -- such as a painter, sculptor, or film maker. Even photographs were created by photographers using film and cameras to create desired effects.

Think about the creator's point of view when you review visual documents. What was the creator's purpose? Why this pose? Why that perspective? Why that framing? Why this distance? Why this subject? What was included? What was excluded? Using visual documents as primary sources requires careful analysis of the content and the point of view of the creator.

When you have finished reviewing the types of primary sources, go ahead to Primary Source Set: Slavery in the United States, 1790-1865.

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This primary source set, "Slavery in the United States, 1790-1865," relates to slavery in the United States before the Civil War. Your teacher will assign you several primary sources. Analyze the primary source documents and make judgments about the quality and reliability of the different primary sources you study. Answer Questions for Analyzing Primary Sources as you examine these materials. Be prepared to discuss your primary source analysis with the class.

For more primary source materials on your subject, use the Internet Resources listed below.

Slavery in the United States, 1790-1865

Photographs of Slaves and Slave Life (ca. 1862-1907)

"Report of the Board of Education for Freedmen" (1864)

"What Became of the Slaves on a Georgia Plantation?" (1859)

Excerpt from "My Ups and Downs," an interview with Kert Shorrow" (1939)

Excerpt from "Mrs. Lulu Bowers II," an interview with Mrs. Lulu Bowers (1938)

Excerpt from "E.W. Evans, Brick Layer & Plasterer," an interview with E.W. Evans (undated)

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Internet Resources

The following Internet links will help you find additional primary sources relating to slavery in the United States.

African-American Perspectives: Pamphlets from the Daniel A.P. Murray Collection, 1818-1907,Library of Congress
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/aap/aaphome.html

American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940, Library of Congress.
Look especially for documents in the Southern region within the collection.
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/wpahome.html

Basic Readings in U.S. Democracy (from the U.S. Department of State)
http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/facts/democrac/demo.htm

Internet Resources, Learning Page of the Library of Congress
Begin with the section on U.S. History Resources: Primary Source Resources
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/start/inres/index.html
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/start/inres/ushist/primary.html

Section 5: Discussion

You have examined at least two different primary source documents. Summarize your findings. Did other students in the class examine the same documents? Do they have the same observations that you and your group do? What is different? What is the same? What do you think about the sources of the documents? Are they believable? Why or why not?

Discuss the following questions with your classmates:

1. What was slavery like for African-Americans in the period before the Civil War?
2. Was any document completely believable? Completely unbelievable? Why or why not?
3. Did some types of sources seem less believable than other kinds of sources? Why do you think this is true?
4. What information about slavery did each document provide? How did looking at several documents expand your understanding of slavery?
5. If you found contradictory information in the sources, which sources did you tend to believe? Why?
6. What generalizations about primary historical sources can you make based on this document set?
7. What additional sources (and types of sources) would you like to see to give you greater confidence in your understanding of slavery?