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Read each question carefully. Use what you know about primary and secondary sources to answer, explain, and justify your thinking.
1. Read the excerpt below. Then answer the questions that follow.
Historical Document
“
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
— Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of Independence, 1776
2. Is the Declaration of Independence a primary source or a secondary source? Explain how you know, and describe what kind of information a historian could learn from it that they could NOT learn from a textbook chapter about the American Revolution.
3. Compare primary and secondary sources across four traits. Use what you have learned to fill in the table.
Trait Primary Source Secondary Source When it was created Who created it Example related to the Civil War Strength for a historian
4. A historian is studying the experiences of enslaved people on Southern plantations before the Civil War. She finds two sources: a plantation owner's journal from 1850 and a slave narrative recorded by a formerly enslaved person in 1938 as part of a government interview project. Which statement BEST explains why using BOTH sources together gives a more complete picture of the past than using just one?
A The journal is older, so it is always more reliable than the interview recorded later. B Each source reflects a different point of view, and together they reveal experiences and details that neither source shows on its own. C The government interview is a secondary source, so it provides analysis the journal cannot. D Primary sources always contradict each other, so historians must choose the one written closest to the event. 5. This timeline shows four types of historical sources about the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804-1806). Which source shown on the timeline was created closest in time to the expedition itself, and why does that timing matter to a historian studying what the journey was like day by day?
1800 2000 1804 Meriwether Lewis writes journal entries during the expedition 1814 First published account of the expedition released 1893 Historian writes biography of Lewis and Clark 1997 Documentary film produced about the expedition Answer:
6. Imani is writing a report about the Boston Tea Party of 1773. She finds three sources: a British newspaper editorial from December 1773 calling the colonists' actions illegal and destructive, a pamphlet written by a Patriot leader in January 1774 defending the protest as a stand for liberty, and a history textbook chapter written in 2015 that describes both sides. Explain which source Imani should use if she wants to understand WHY the colonists believed their action was justified, and which source she should use if she wants an overview of the event that considers multiple perspectives. Justify each choice.
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