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Primary Source Analysis
Source
Bumstead et al. Interpreting Canada’s Past: A Pre-Confederation Reader 4th edition (Oxford University Press, 2011)
Description
I chose this book ‘Interpreting Canada’s Past: A Pre-Confederation Reader 4th edition’ because it has a collection of Canadian history that was of interest to me. My focus is on three historic documents found in this book. These are; ‘the ordinance disallowing pretension set up by Jacques Hamelin in Edicts relative to the seigniorial tenure’, the ‘Word from New France’ and the ‘Missionaries and first Nations’. The three sources have detail specific Canadian history focusing on Gender & Social Structure in New France, Expulsion of the Acadians and The Conquest and also the Contact and Conflict in North America.
About Author (s)
The main author to this primary source book is John "Jack" Michael Bumsted. He was born on December 12, 1938 in White Plains, New York. He has a PHD in history from Brown’s University which he obtained in 1965 ("Interpreting Canada's Past | J.M. Bumsted | 9780195427790 | Oxford University Press Canada" 2016 This is not Chicago referencing style). In addition, he has taught at various universities including Tufts University, Simon Fraser University, McMaster University and the University of Manitoba. In addition, hHe also owns the Mystery Book Store (Is this relevant to the analysis?). Though he is already retired, he is known for his prolific writing skills and research where he has written more than 30 books. All these have guided him into winning the J.W. Dafoe Book price twice. His book ‘Interpreting Canada's past’ is on its fourth printing. Other contributing authors for this book authors are Len Kuffert and Michel Ducharm ("Interpreting Canada's Past | J.M. Bumsted | 9780195427790 | Oxford University Press Canada" 2016 not Chicago) e. Len kKuffert is an associate professor at the University of Manitoba who specializes in history. On the other hand, Michaelwhile Dducharme is a professor at the University of British Columbia; both and also specializes in history. One of his most recent work is Le concept de liberté au Canada à l'époque des Révolutions atlantiques (1776-1838) (2010) which focuses on the history of Quebec, and the liberalism/colonialism in Canada and Quebec. As it has been discussed above, all the three contributing authors are known professors in History and are therefore knowledgeable enough to provide credible primary sources (Just because they are history professors doesn’t necessarily mean the accounts provided are credible).
The book brought together different primary sources in ancient Canadian history (Repetitive). The Author’s(which author are you speaking of?) aim was to facilitate teaching of these history subjects in schools. AsBeing a history professor in history, he was determined in his quest to document primary sources with an aim of preserving all Canadian history that he considered important (Purvis 1992). This book covers a number of areas in the Canadian history, these include; Confederation and Anti-Confederation history , history about Métis, Rushing' the Empire Westward, Aboriginal People in British North America, Women in British North America, Rebellions in Lower Canada, Immigration in the Early Nineteenth Century, Fur Trade in the Northwest, Loyalists, Representing Acadia and Canada, Expulsion of the Acadians, Seigneurial Regime in New France, Where the First People Came From' in Cree Legends from the West Coast of James Bay and Missionaries and First Nations ("Interpreting Canada's Past | J.M. Bumsted | 9780195427790 | Oxford University Press Canada" 2016 not Chicago). In this text, we only focus on three of these primary documents as stated above. You have already said this in the first paragraph. There is no need to detail what the book covers but rather just start talking about your chosen documents. You are being repetitive.
Audience
On a general view, every author aims at preserving history and reaching out to students, in this case to explore Canada's history Again, repetitive. Using authentic primary documents, the author provides students with a comprehensive view of pre-Confederation Canada (Krug 1970<- not Chicago). The three documents provided aim at specific groups of people including students in specific areas of interest. For instance, in the article? In the ordinance disallowing pretension set up by Jacques Hamelin in Edicts relative to the seigniorial tenure, the author aims at an audience that is oriented to the Canadian judicial systems. The ruling made here can be used as precedent law to guide the judicial system of Canada and this is drawn back to April 1711. The “missionaries and first Nations” document focuses on an audience that may be interested in the growth of the church, Christianity and gospel in Canada. The “word from New France” document is intended for an audience that is interested in discovering the sufferings of the church and persons who had to sacrifice themselves in its defense. It reveals a sad history referring with respects to the persecution of believers that had no rights and who even found it difficult to preach or even pray in public. Therefore, it can be concluded that any student who wishes to understand history related to any of these primary sources can easily locate them.
Assumptions
On evaluation of the three provided historical sources, it can be deduced that the text has some unspoken assumptions. For instance, in “the ordinance disallowing pretension set up by Jacques Hamelin in Edicts relative to the seigniorial tenure”, the author does not explain the prejudicial nature of the house under contention, which Francois Hamelin is planning to erect. As a result, this piece of work leaves its readers with a task of determining the type of prejudice in this particular context. In addition, the language used is biased such that it is based on a court or arbitratyion context. It requires readers to understand this type of language in order for them to easily relate with its history.
The author of the “Word from New France” text also makes certain assumptions. For example, at first he claims that the Reverend father’s life was spared, however, he does not lead the reader into a clear understanding on how the father landed himself into preaching for the Iroquois later on. The author even goes further to reveal that the reverend father baptized more than sixty people after the first incident. Readers interested in the specific history of the Reverend Father are thus lost along the way and do not understand how the Father actually maneuvered his ways through. A critic could also question from which context a little girl appears amidst seminarians and answers the same question as they did. In addition, Marie de I’ Incarnation’s use of words ‘first foundations of the church’ makes an assumption that readers can easily understand their intended meaning - building of a chapel and a mission devoted exclusively for Indians.As I am unfamiliar with your topic, I do not know whether this just copy and paste because there is no actual flow here. The source ‘Missionaries and first nations’ is much more straight forward and makes little assumptions in comparison to the other two historic pieces.
World view
Interpretation of any primary source document could vary from one person to another. Whilst some may interpret them according to the initial intentions of their authors, others may manipulate their messages to meet their own needs (Beaupre and Kobrin 1997 not Chicago). For instance, in the word from New France (you should be putting your article title in quotation marks), the author criticizes a little girl who argues that Jesus died and gave them meat that they celebrate as sacrament. In this case, a reader may take into consideration the innocence of this little girl and interpret the text otherwise (I am not sure I get what you are trying to convey. How would they interpret the text? Maybe it would be helpful to elaborate? Make a comparison if the little girl is not innocent…what changes then?). The reader may not see the significance of such a statement owing to the little girl’s innocence. In addition, the conclusions that the author makes would be inconsistent with those of readers. In the ordinance disallowing pretension set up by Jacques Hamelin in Edicts relative to the seigniorial tenure (Article needs to be in quotation marks), the author’s perspective is in favor of the decision reached at through arbitration, however, as a critical reader, one may see sense in Jacques statement and as a result they may become inclined into lean towards a ruling that favors Jacques convictions.. In the missionaries and first Nations, the Huron’s were learning and teaching prayer and they did this with full conviction, however, the reader could interpret this to mean that all Huron’s were actually converted into Christianity while all the Iroquois were persecutors of the gospel which is not the case. These different points of view are acceptable in any type of literature since they depend on the readers’ view of the world I am sorry but I am lost.
Relevance of the source
The three historical sources provide an avenue through which readers can relate what happened in the past to what is happening today (Obrochta and Evans 1996not Chicago). For example, in use of law precedents, a judge may refer to the ruling made in the ordinance disallowing the pretension set up by Jacques Hamelin In edicts relative to the seigniorial tenure in making a ruling for a similar case. In addition, one can relate the persecution of the church in the past to what is happening in modern churches and realize that Christianity has gradually grown. through a gradual process.
Secondly, these sources aid students in understanding that all history is local since it all happened in Canada Obviously it is local, we are speaking about Canada. . It also reveals to the students aboutsheds light upon the continuum of history and that it keeps repeating itself every day History repeats itself every day? Really? You will have to back this statement up. (Obrochta and Evans 1996 not Chicago). The students understand that everyone leaves history behind them (If they do, then why it is necessary to say it?). This is achieved through developing a clear understanding of the immediacy about the past. It also helps readers in developing critical thinking skills in the course of understanding and analyzing content. Readers can achieve this through historical thinking attributes which accompany such primary sources thereby initiating increased understanding of the history under discussion
Lastly, readers gain important traits of human empathy in the course of understanding these primary history sources. In this, the sources facilitate a change of view by readers to whom history was previously impersonal (Obrochta and Evans 1996 not Chicago) GOOD!. For instance, in the source ‘Word from New France’ the mood that the author uses in communicating his message is sad and arouses empathy in the reader, the readers also understands the continuity of change, cause and consequence, contributors, reasons and demographics for change, response of government of the day, religious conflict, family and media. In addition, they understand the historical perspective of the past and ethical judgment of the past through developing specific atltitudes and reactions.
Conclusion
Bibliography
Beaupre, Daniel J. and David Kobrin. 1997. "Beyond The Textbook: Teaching History Using Documents And Primary Sources". The History Teacher 30 (4): 504.
Krug, Mark M. 1970. "Primary Sources In Teaching History". The History Teacher 3 (3): 41.
Obrochta, W. B. and S. B. Evans. 1996. "Exploring History Through Primary Sources: A Teachers' Institute". OAH Magazine Of History 10 (3): 48-50.
Purvis, June. 1992. "Using Primary Sources When Researching Women's History From A Feminist Perspective". Women's History Review 1 (2): 273-306.
Schiel, Katy. 2005. Monarchy. New York, N.Y.: Rosen Pub. Group.
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