Identifying Primary Sources
Identifying Primary Sources
Primary sources are key in historical research. Primary sources allow the reader to delve into the actual time period (day, year, decade, century, era, etc.) and catch a glimpse into how the people of the specified time and place wrote, understood, and categorized events, people, and places. What did they emphasize? How much importance did they place on a person? What about that person's religion, social status, economics, race? What did THEY (the author) say happened? Were they correct?
Primary sources are tools. Tools that are used to begin and legtimisze research into the history of subjects. When you can identify primary sources, you can begin to read what people of the time period you happen to be studying might have read and immerse yourself in the mind of the author (Maybe Julius Ceasar, Thomas Jefferson, the editor of the New York Times in 1932.)
To help identify primary sources we have to categorize them: Primary sources are sources that were written/authored at the time/place being studied. For example: If you are studying the American continents during the 15th and 16th century, Christopher Columbus's journal would be a primary source. Why? Becuase it was written during the time period you are studying, the subject is primarily what Columbus discovered in the "New World" (American continents), and becuase the author was present at the location and time.
Compared to secondary sources. Secondary sources are sources written after the time period you are studying. If you are researching Thomas Jefferson and come across a biography of Jefferson written in 1981, then that would be considered a secondary source. Why? It was written after the time period, by a person who was not present during the time period nor had ever met Mr. Jefferson.
Identifying Primary Sources Activity
Assessment
For this section:
There will be a topic of study (The British North American Colonies, for example) given, as well as four example sources.
Your task will be to identify the primary sources. You should record your answers on a word document, and submit them in GeorgiaView in the appropiate assignment folder.
Topic of Study: The American Revolution
Choices:
1) Virginia Declaration of Rights (1776)
2)Constitution of the United States of America (1787)
3)EVEREST, ALLAN S. "The American Revolution 1776–1778." In Moses Hazen and the Canadian Refugees in the American Revolution, 46-65. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press, 1976.
4)Winship, A. E. "WASHINGTON THE PRESIDENT.—(I)." The Journal of Education 53, no. 6 (1901): 83-84.