PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION ABOUT THE STUDY OF HISTORY. FOLLOWING THIS INFORMATION WILL BE YOUR INSTRUCTIONS FOR DISCUSSION ACTIVITY, WEEK 1.
Before we even get to the past itself, let’s look at how to study the past. We are lucky in the study of history that we have no big specialized vocabulary, and not really a lot of jargon.
There are just two terms you really need to know. It is important to know that history made up of sources, remnants we get from the past that help us learn about history in the present. These sources are the only ways we know anything at all about history.
The first term to know is “primary sources.” Primary sources are the building blocks of history. A primary source is any article from the past that was produced in the era under consideration. It is something that comes from the era you are currently studying or looking at. A primary source for slavery in the early 1800s, for instance, could be an account written by an enslaved person 1813. It comes from the era we are considering.
Primary sources are usually thought of as written sources, such as documents, diaries, letters, laws and decrees, etc. However, primary sources can be any other thing – literally anything – from the past.
We know, for instance, that the “Declaration of Independence” is a primary source, but did you know that a television show like “Stranger Things” is also a primary source? It helps us learn about the era under consideration, in this case, the early 21st century.
Other examples of unexpected primary sources include movies, music, clothing, graffiti, paintings, skeletons, TV shows, household articles, and on and on. Primary sources can be absolutely anything we can look at and study from the past.
Think for a moment about how someone in the future would know about your life. You’ve probably left no laws or promulgations; many people don’t keep a diary or blog. However, you do leave records, primary sources for future historians, of yourself. You go to school, you probably have a job, you might go to libraries, see movies, eat out. You leave a trail with everything you do. In those activities alone, you have provided future historians with attendance records, grade records, time cards, records of books checked out, records of the movies you saw, of what you ate, all of which can be used to understand your life in the early 21st century.
Remember that a source must be from the era under consideration for it to be primary source. For example, if you were studying the Revolutionary War era, a diary written by a revolutionary soldier can be primary source. “The Patriot,” a Mel Gibson movie from 90s and about the Revolutionary War, would not be a primary source for the Revolutionary war period. It would, however, be a primary source for the 1990s!
The second type of source is the “secondary source.” Secondary sources are sources produced to discuss, depict, and portray the past, and are produced AFTER the era under consideration. They tell us about the past, but not produced in the period they describe. Like primary sources, secondary sources can be many things. In most cases, they will be a text book or a history book, but they could also be a movie, art, even historical fiction.
A book written this year about American colonies, then, would be a secondary source for the colonial era. Make sense? We will be using secondary sources in this class (the textbook), but also using many primary sources, like those from the Voices of Freedom book (your “reader”) which is a collection of many primary sources, like letters, laws, diary entries.
Now, let’s consider some important skills which will help you in the study of history. The first is critical thinking. Always be critical of the sources you read or see because all sources are biased. “Bias” does not necessarily mean negative, just that all sources take a certain perspective or have a specific purpose. A soldier fighting in the Civil War and President Lincoln, in office during that war, both experienced the war, but would probably describe it in different ways. They have different perspectives, goals, audiences, motives, experiences of the war, that would lead to differing, and perhaps conflicting, versions of it. That does not mean one version is more or less true than the other, but that both are biased, coming from different perspectives. Pay close attention to the perspectives of the historical sources you will be assigned; it will help you to understand the views of motives of the author.
Another important skill is skill in written expression. The study of history – and your understanding of it – is communicated through the written word. In your case, this will be one paper and three essay tests. We will spend time later in the course discussing how to write that paper well and how to approach and do well on an essay test.
Instructions for Activity 1:Read the following primary source excerpt, by Bartolome de las Casas. In three paragraphs, answer the following questions about this source:
1. Briefly describe the contents of the source. What is it saying? What is it intention? Who is the author? What was its intended purpose? What era or event does it describe, or was it produced under?2. What can we learn about that era from this source? What are the limitations of the source for understanding that era or event?3. In what ways might the source be biased (remember that biased does not necessarily mean “bad” or “lying” in this context)? What perspective does this source take? How might these biases and perspectives shape what we understand about the era or event?Post in the discussion board below. This activity, however, is not intended to be a true discussion. You will post on a discussion board, but you do not need to interact with any other posts/classmates. You can all see each other’s posts, however, so that you can read some that might interest you and learn from one another. You must post your answers by no later than the end of Sunday, August 30.