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A wide range of tools are available to historians when they write history. Evidence from a number of sources—including oral interviews, posters, newspapers, laws, census data, pictographs, novels, political cartoons, maps, and journals—is consulted and relied upon during the process.
All of the sources mentioned above are primary sources: firsthand accounts and other evidence from the time period being investigated. Primary sources provide the foundation of all historical narratives.
For example, let’s revisit Reconstruction, specifically the months immediately following the surrender of Confederate forces in 1865. During this time, Americans debated whether and how the Southern states would be readmitted to the Union. People disagreed over the fate of Confederate political leaders and military officers, including Confederate president Jefferson Davis and General Robert E. Lee. We know this through primary sources, including government documents, newspaper articles, and political cartoons.
If a historian were investigating the pardoning of former Confederates following the Civil War or Black suffrage, he or she would search for primary sources similar to this and write an account based on the evidence. Primary sources can be found in a number of places. Libraries and archives are obvious choices, but historians also find primary sources in courthouses, federal offices, and historical societies. Primary sources can also be located on the Internet.
Historians find and examine primary sources in order to develop narratives about past events. They pose questions as they conduct research to critically examine and understand those events. Thomas Nast created the cartoon above to influence opinion. But who was Thomas Nast? Was the cartoon aimed at a Northern or a Southern audience? Does the way that Columbia is depicted reveal anything about Nast’s bias toward the pardoning of former Confederates or Black suffrage? These are just a few of the questions that a historian might ask while researching primary sources.
Unless a historian is studying an obscure subject, it’s likely that someone else has studied it—and written about it—previously. Historians also rely on secondary sources, or works by historians and other writers that interpret primary sources. Secondary sources are another source of information that historians use to develop their interpretations of historical events.
Secondary sources are the textbooks, history books, or articles in peer-reviewed history journals that historians use to learn about, fact-check, and broaden their view of the historical period in question. A historian might read Eric Foner’s Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution before writing his or her own history of Reconstruction. A historian who was using the image above for a history of political cartoons might refer to Fiona Deans Halloran’s Thomas Nast: The Father of Modern Political Cartoons to learn more about Nast and the time in which he lived.
Interpretations of past events change over time. The most accurate and informed secondary sources are often those that were published most recently. Secondary sources can also include movies, documentaries, magazine articles, and websites, but not all secondary sources are created equal. Historians most often rely on secondary sources that have been created by other historians.
One reason that historians take secondary sources seriously is that primary sources cannot always be taken at face value. Oftentimes primary sources are biased. “Biased” sources aren’t “bad” sources. A biased source is simply one that has been created from a particular perspective; one that may not be objective, without prejudice or persuasive intent. When someone creates a primary source, that person’s background and personal beliefs, as well as his or her intended audience and purpose for writing, may introduce bias into that source. In addition to potential bias, the source may be received in different contexts. Sometimes there isn’t a clear idea on how to use a primary source.
The way to gain the most value from primary sources is to think about them critically and historically. Historians think about primary sources in a variety of ways, but one straightforward, easy-to-remember way to investigate these sources is to ask yourself the “Five Ws” (and one “H”):
To learn how to read a primary source, let’s consider a speech by Frederick Douglass, who was born into slavery and later became a prominent opponent of slavery and an advocate of Black equality at the time of the Civil War.
This selection is from “What the Black Man Wants.” Douglass gave this speech in April of 1865, during the annual meeting of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society in Boston.
Frederick Douglass, “What the Black Man Wants”
“I have had but one idea for the last three years to present to the American people, and the phraseology in which I clothe it is the old abolition phraseology. I am for the ‘immediate, unconditional, and universal’ enfranchisement of the Black man, in every State in the Union. [Loud applause.] Without this, his liberty is a mockery; without this, you might as well almost retain the old name of slavery for his condition; for in fact, if he is not the slave of the individual master, he is the slave of society, and holds his liberty as a privilege, not as a right. He is at the mercy of the mob, and has no means of protecting himself.”
At first glance, this seems like a straightforward request for the right to vote to be extended to African Americans, many of whom were formerly enslaved. Douglass indicates that he had advocated this cause for at least 3 years. However, when you consider his words in the context of the Civil War and militant abolitionism, other facets of Douglass’s argument and motives come into focus.
Douglass made this speech in April of 1865, at the end of the Civil War. Two years earlier, on January 1, 1863, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which signaled the end of slavery in the United States. By April of 1865, major fighting in the Civil War had subsided and, like many Americans, Douglass wanted to know what was in store for those who had been freed. Although he supported the Emancipation Proclamation, freedom was not enough for him. By insisting on “the ‘immediate, unconditional, and universal’ enfranchisement of the Black man”, Douglass asserted that the right to vote for African Americans must accompany the end of slavery in the United States.
In making this speech to the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, which was among the most prominent abolitionist groups, Douglass attempted to enlist the support of abolitionists for Black suffrage. This is evident in his reference to “the old abolition phraseology.” Prior to the Civil War, militant abolitionists agitated for the “immediate, unconditional, and universal” end of slavery in the United States. Now, in April of 1865, with slavery ending and Union victory assured, Douglass urged abolitionists to apply the same rhetoric (and the reasoning behind it) in support of Black voting rights. Contemporary speech transcripts indicate “Loud Applause” during Douglass’s statement, suggesting that many in the Massachusetts abolitionist community supported this cause.
On the surface, Douglass’s argument in favor of Black voting rights seems straightforward. When the context and audience are taken into account, however, a clearer and more complete picture comes into view. The time at which it was given is crucial to understanding Douglass’s speech: it reveals his hopes for a national post-war policy. By addressing an abolitionist audience, Douglass attempted to mobilize a mass movement on behalf of Black suffrage.
You can begin to think like a historian by applying the Five Ws to primary and secondary sources. Primary sources can be complex, so use historical thinking and critical thinking skills when examining them. Critical thinking is hard to define, but it fundamentally indicates the use of a clear, self-directed, and evidence-based process to form a judgment on a topic. In other words, when creating accounts of the past, historians must take a responsible approach to judging available evidence and create a narration based on it.
One way that historians do this is by thinking historically about an event and its related primary sources. This can be accomplished through a variety of intellectual channels. An easy one to remember is to think in terms of the Five Cs (Andrews & Burke, 2007):
Source: This tutorial curated and/or authored by Matthew Pearce, Ph.D with content adapted from Openstax “U.S. History”. access for free at openstax.org/details/books/us-history LICENSE: CREATIVE COMMONS ATTRIBUTION 4.0 INTERNATIONAL
REFERENCES
Andrews, T & Burke, F. (2007, Jan). What Does It Mean to Think Historically? Ret Oct 2016, from bit.ly/2i1vENK
Douglass, F. (1865). What the Black Man Wants. Ret Mar 10, 2017, from teachingamericanhistory.org/document/what-the-black-man-wants-2/