ANALYZING PRIMARY SOURCES

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ANALYZING PRIMARY SOURCES
And I will do everything that I can as long as I
am President of the United States to remind the
American people that we are one nation under God,
and we may call that God different names but we
remain one nation. President Barack
Obama, quote from a speech on Sept.10th, 2010.

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What are Primary Sources?

• A primary source is a piece of living history. 
  It may be defined as any artifact that provides
  first hand or direct information about the past. 
  Primary sources may include first person accounts
  (e.g. oral histories, diaries, memoirs,
  correspondence), documents (e.g. correspondence,
  treaties, laws, speeches), images (e.g. maps,
  photographs, drawings, paintings), or
  historically gathered data.

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Questions to Consider When You Analyze Primary
Sources

• Written Primary Sources
• Who created the source and why?
• What sorts of information does the source supply?
  
• Under what circumstances was the source created? 
  How would this influence the content of the
  source?
• For who was the source created?
• Was the source meant to be public or private?
• Did the creator wish to inform, persuade, or
  deceive his or her audience?  What did the
  creator hope to accomplish by writing the source?
  Can you trust the source's content at face value?
  
• What were the opinions, motivations, or interests
  of the creator?  How does his or her point of
  view compare to other writers of the period? 
  What kind of impact would this have on the
  content of the source?

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Questions to Consider When You Analyze Primary
Sources

• (b) Visual Primary Sources (images)
• Why was the image created?
• What does the image reveal about its subject?
• What is the point of view of the image? Whose
  story is it telling?
• What is the setting of the image?  What sorts of
  details does it include or emphasize?  What sorts
  of details does it exclude?
• What are the underlying messages of the image and
  motives of the artist?
• How long after the event was the image created?
  How does this influence the image's content or
  perspective?

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How to Keep All Those Critical Questions in Mind?

• ACRONYM 1
• T Time Period (when doc.
• was produced)
• A Author (any info. about
• him/her)
• P Purpose (intended
• purpose/tone of the
• document)
• T Type of document (ex
• legal (contract, law),
• informal (diary))
• A Argument(s) (main idea(s)
• in the doc.)
• B Bias (prejudice/favoritism
• expressed in the doc.)

• ACRONYM 2
• S Speaker (author) and hi/her
• Status
• O Occasion (when doc. was
• produced/delivered)
• A Audience (intended audience for
• the doc.)
• P Purpose (intended purpose of the
• document)
• A Arguments (main ideas
• expressed in the doc.)
• B Bias (prejudice/favoritism
• expressed in the doc.)

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When You Interpret Primary Sources, The Challenge
is to Figure Out Answers to the Following
Questions

• (1) What does the document say?
• (meaning of the document)
• (2) WHY would the author of this
• document have this particular opinion?
• (Reasons behind the Authors Point of
• View (POV))

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BE CRITICAL and PERCEPTIVE!!!Scrutinize
everything!!!
This barbarous usage of those unfortunate
wretches, makes it appear, that the fate of such
as are bought and transported from the coast to
America, or other parts of the world, by
Europeans, is less deplorable, than that of those
who end their days in their native country for
aboard ships all possible care is taken to
preserve and subsist them for the interest of the
owners, and when sold in America, the same motive
ought to prevail with their masters to use them
well, that they may live the longer, and do them
more service. Not to mention the inestimable
advantage they may reap, of becoming Christians,
and saving their souls, if they make a true use
of their condition....
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Remember ThisPeople are Products of Their Time,
Upbringing, and Environment !!!
Insert your Pic here ?
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Consider This!
"All who die by the way, whether by land or by
sea, or in battle against the pagans, shall have
immediate remission of sins. This I grant them
through the power of God with which I am
invested. O what a disgrace if such a despised
and base race, which worships demons, should
conquer a people which has the faith of
omnipotent God and is made glorious with the name
of Christ! With what reproaches will the Lord
overwhelm us if you do not aid those who, with
us, profess the Christian religion! Pope Urban
IIs Call for the Crusade
1095
2007
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Consider This!

• What is wrong with this picture?

This photograph shows the famous boxer Jack
Johnson and his wife on the opening night of
their night club, "The Showboat," Los Angeles,
California, 1931.
If you were reading an editorial about this event
in, lets say, a Southern newspaper, and the
author was outraged, would you be able to explain
his/her reasons for having such an opinion?
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Consider this!

• Source Twelve Tablets, excerpts, Ancient Roman
  Code of Law, 450 B.C.E.
• V. 1 "Our ancestors saw fit that "females, by
  reason of levity of disposition, shall remain in
  guardianship, even when they have attained their
  majority."
• VI. 2 Marriage by usage' (usus) If a man and
  woman live together continuously for a year, they
  are considered to be married the woman legally
  is treated as the man's daughter.

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Consider this!

• "America has been hit by Allah at its most
  vulnerable point, destroying, thank God, its most
  prestigious buildings."
• Osama bin Ladens speech on October 7, 2001,
  after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade
  Center and the Pentagon.

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Work Cited

• Slide 1 http//questgarden.com/81/41/7/0904251224
  17/images/photo05.jpg
• http//www.safepassageohio.org/photos/COFFIN3.j
  pg
• http//foolocracy.com/wordpress/wp-content/uplo
  ads/2010/03/Anti_American_propaganda_9-
• 
  636x1024.jpg
• Slides 2-4 http//www.si.umich.edu/spies/lounge-
  sources.html
• Slide 7 http//photos2.fotosearch.com/bthumb/FSA/
  FSA302/x16998564.jpg
• http//techpaul.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/ske
  ptical-face.jpg
• Slide 8 http//www.ashridge.org.uk/website/conten
  t.nsf/FileLibrary/
• 
  B486E07E6D471E01802575C300611E52/file/Gen-Y-Exter
  nalInfluences_49.gif
• Slide 9 http//www.osce.org/files/imagecache/smal
  l/images/web/d/e/7662.jpg?1269002138
• Slide 10 http//www.historynyc.com/prodimages/546
  0s.jpg