Using Primary Source Documents in Historical Writing

1. Using Primary Source Documents in Historical Writing

2. Validity and Bias in Primary Source Documents • Never take a document at face value. • All documents have strengths and weaknesses that should be evaluated in forming your historical argument. • All documents contain biases. The historian’s job is to determine what those biases are so that the document can be effectively used in an historical essay.

3. SOAPS A quick way to think about validity and bias in an historical document is to think about the circumstance surrounding the documents creation. Specifically: • Speaker • Occasion • Audience • Purpose • Subject

5. Speaker • Who created the document? • What do you know about the person’s identity? (race, gender, class, age, job etc.) • How might their identity effect the document?

6. Speaker • Northerner • Man • White • Professional Cartoonist

7. Occasion • When was the document created? • What events were occurring historically that might effect the creation of the document?

8. Occasion • “Bleeding Kansas” • Preston Brooks attack on Charles Sumner • Election year

9. Audience • Who was the document created for? • Was the document meant to be public or private? • What do you know about the identity of the people or person it was created for? • What is the relationship between the Speaker and the audience?

10. Audience • Literate White Northerners • Voters

11. Purpose • Why was the document created? • What purpose does the document serve?

12. Purpose • To sway public opinion or reinforce public opinion.

13. Subject • What is the subject of the document? • Read between the lines. What is the true meaning of the document. • Message

14. Subject • Preston Brooks is portrayed as animalistic (notice hair, tail, etc) • Charles Sumner well dressed, statesman. Only a quill to defend himself. • “Southern Chivalry” --sarcastic • “Argument versus Clubs”