WHAT IS A PRIMARY SOURCE How do people learn about the past Students of history may examine both primary and secondary sources A primary source is a record of a historical event made by someone who lived during that time Official documents recordings memoirs weather reports and photographs all offer firsthand evidence of the past A primary source may also be an artifact such as a piece of clothing or pottery This photograph of the March on Washington a 1963 protest for racial equality is a primary source 4
A secondary source such as a textbook was created at a later time by someone who was not present at the time of the event Secondary sources are often based on information gathered from primary sources One person’s experience of an event may be very different from another’s Primary sources reflect these individual points of view and perspectives Studying primary sources lets students and historians reach their own conclusions about the meaning of the past Studying a primary source can make history come alive How is a primary source different from a secondary source How are they similar Compare and Contrast 5
SLAVERY Primary sources are valuable for studying slavery in the United States In the past many societies had slavery The trade of African slaves across the Atlantic Ocean began in the early 1500s European ship captains bought people who had been forced into slavery from African traders The ship captains Humans were treated like cargo and packed tightly into slave ships Many died at sea The practice of people owning other people is slavery Slaves work for their owners without pay and must do whatever their owners tell them to do Vocabulary 6
then brought the slaves to the Americas where Europeans had established colonies Conditions on slave ships were terrible and many people died Those who survived were sold to people who forced them to work The first enslaved Africans in what would become the United States arrived in the English colony of Virginia in 1619 Accounts by people who were once slaves are a primary source for studying slavery Ads looking for runaway slaves are too Another primary source is the Emancipation Proclamation This document was issued during the American Civil War It declared that the slaves in the Southern states were free This color copy of the Emancipation Proclamation was printed in 1888 7
