History

4 Introduction: Using Sources to Study the Past

sources provide background about a particular subject, include important refer­ ences to primary sources through footnotes and bibliographies, and raise ques­ tions, topics, and debates that form the foundation for additional research. To carry the courtroom analogy a step further, it is the lawyer's job, like the historian's, to take the evidence (primary sources) and build a case (secondary source). It is impossible to build a case, however, unless you have some idea of what the other lawyers are saying, what their evidence is, and how they plan to structure their case.

T his is why courts have a "discovery" process that requires lawyers to share their evidence with opposing counsel before trial. And it is why history teachers assign students to read secondary sources before giving them the difficult task of going through birth records or ship manifests looking for fresh evidence, trying to rearrange the old evidence, or combining the two to create a new understand­ ing of what happened. The exciting part of history is coming up with your own questions about the past and finding answers that create knowledge and spark new ways of understanding the past, the present, and even the future.

':, ��r;t'\;:, )' APPROACHING SOURCES CRITICALLY In any courtroom trial. opposing lawyers try many ways to poke holes in each other's argument bu a the end of the day, the jury must decide what evidence is most relevant, who e estimony is most reliable and which argument is most convincing. The same tandard applies to historical sources. In investigating whether slavery was eco omi ally inefficient, do we trust the tax office's records or the plantation owner's financial records, his complaints to his congressman about how much tax he was paying, or his boastful letters to his sister about cheating on his taxes. Is there a good reason why some or all of these sources may be lying stretching the truth, or simply misleading? Who is a more reliable witness to slavery, the slave or the slaveholder; the Northern abolitionist or the Southern politician; the poor white farmer who hates the slaveholders or the English gentleman visiting his Georgia cousins? Every person has a unique point of view set of beliefs, and reason for giving testimony; and we must critically analyze and evaluate everything-and assume nothing.

These factors constitute the bias of the source. Because all sources are i­ ased, it is important to develop a set of questions for interrogating documemary sources. Some useful questions to ask are:

What is the historical context for the document? When was i and how does it relate to important events of the perio . . · headnotes for the sources included in this book provide • 01" ground information.)

• Who is the author? What can you tell about that p social status, and so on? What can you infer about the purpose of the doa•- - intended audience?

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Professor Laura J. Sweeney's Curricula Materials

Introduction: Using Sources to Study the Past

What do the document's style and tone tell you about the author's purpose? What main points does the author seek to communicate or express? What does the document suggest about the author's point of view and biases? Consider whether the author misunderstood what he or she was relating or had reason to falsify the account.

• What can you infer about how typical for the period the views expressed in the document are?

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Additional thought must be given to visual sources. When working with visual material, ask the following questions along with those above:

• How is the image framed or drawn? What does the image include? What might the creator of the work have excluded? What do the creator's de­ cisions regarding the content tell you about the event, person, or place you are analyzing?

• What medium (drawing, painting, photograph, or other) did the creator employ? What constraints did the medium impose on the creator? For example, photographic technology in the nineteenth century was very rudimentary and involved large, bulky cameras with very slow shutter speeds. This technological context tells us something about why people often posed stiffly and without a smile for early photographs. Likewise, although there are numerous Civil War battlefront photographs, most were posed or created after battles because the camera's shutter speeds did not allow for action photography.

• Do you know if the work was expensive or cheap to produce? Where was the work intended to be displayed-in a museum, a courthouse, a private home, a grocery store, or elsewhere? What might these consider­ ations suggest about the event, person, or place you are analyzing?

Historians strive not to use the standards of the present to make judgments about the past. When working with both primary and secondary sources, the question of historical context must always be considered. For example, the de­ cision to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki is often said to have been made without the same taboos, sociopolitical fears, and ecological concerns that are today tied to nuclear energy and nuclear weapons. It was largely as­ sumed, during the entire process of developing atomic weapons, that they would be used. At the time, there was little serious discussion of not using this new war technology to hasten the end of the conflict with Japan, beyond a few last­ minute letters and petitions from the very atomic scientists who had spent years and vast sums of money working to develop these new tools of war. This was the historical context in which the decision to drop the atomic bomb was made. To bring in more modern concerns, such as nuclear proliferation and environmental impact, when analyzing evidence from the period would be moving beyond this decision's historical context.

Professor Laura J. Sweeney's Curricula Materials