Primary Sources

A primary source (also called original source) is a document, recording or other source of information, such as a paper or a picture for instance, that was created at the time being studied, by an authoritative source, usually one with direct personal knowledge of the events being described. It serves as an original source of information about the topic. Primary sources are distinguished from secondary sources, which often cite, comment on, or build upon primary sources.a primary source (also called original source) is a document, recording or other source of information, such as a paper or a picture for instance, that was created at the time being studied, by an authoritative source, usually one with direct personal knowledge of the events being described. It serves as an original source of information about the topic. Primary sources are distinguished from secondary sources, which often cite, comment on, or build upon primary sources.  -Source: Wikipedia

When reading primary sources, a historian always asks several questions of himself that can be categorized using the acronym APPARTS:

Author - Who created the source? What do you know about the author? What is the author's point of view?

Place and time - Where and when was the source produced? How might this affect the meaning of the source?

Prior knowledge - Beyond information about the author and the context of its creation, what do you know that would help you further understand the primary source?

Audience - For whom was the source created and how might this affect the reliability of the source?

Reason - Why was this source produced at the time it was produced?

The Main Idea - What point is the source trying to convey?

Significance - Why is this source important? What inferences can you draw from this document? Ask yourself, "So what?" in relation to the question asked.

John Locke, excerpt from the Second Treatise on Civil Government (PDF 69 KB)
William Bradford, Mayflower Compact (1620) (PDF 13 KB)
John Winthrop, Model of Christian Charity (1630) (PDF 32 KB)
Benjamin Franklin, Unite or Die Cartoon (1754) (JPG 35 KB)
Benjamin Franklin, Albany Plan of Union (1754) (PDF 89 KB)
Resolutions of the Stamp Act Congress (1765) (PDF 21 KB)
2nd Continental Congress, Declaration of teh Causes for Taking Up Arms (1775) (PDF 32 KB)
Thomas Paine's Common Sense (1776) (PDF 20 KB)
George Mason, Virginia Declaration of Rights (1776) (PDF 22 KB)
Declaration of Independence (1776) (PDF 40 KB)
Comparison of VA's Declaration of Rights and Bill of Rights (1791) (PDF 25 KB)
Thomas JEfferson, Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom (1779) (PDF 45 KB)
Articles of Confederation (1781) (PDF 42 KB)
Jay and Washington Letters (1786) (PDF 51 KB)
James Madison, Federalist 10 (1787) (PDF 31 KB)
James Madison, Federalist 51 (1787) (PDF 23 KB)
Alexander Hamilton, Federalist 78 (1787) (PDF 32 KB)
Constitution of the United States (1787) (PDF 77 KB)
Amendments to the Constitution (PDF 41 KB)
Washington's Farewell Address (1796) (PDF 10 KB)
Sedition Act of 1798 (PDF 49 KB)
Virginia Resolutions (1798) (PDF 24 KB)
Kentucky Resolutions (1799) (PDF 26 KB)
Federalist and Anti-Federalist view on Judicial Review (1788) (PDF 18 KB)
Judiciary Act of 1789 (1789) (PDF 21 KB)
Marbury v Madison (1803) (PDF 65 KB)
Jefferson's Reaction to Marbury v Madison (1803) (PDF 68 KB)
Monroe Doctrine (1823) (PDF 21 KB)
Jackson's Proclamation on Nullification (1832) (PDF 62 KB)
John O'Sullivan's Manifest Destiny (1839) (PDF 17 KB)
American Anti-Slavery Society Declaration of Sentiments (1833) (PDF 25 KB)
Ralph Waldo Emerson's Self Reliance (1841) (PDF 32 KB)
Dorothea Dix's Memorial to the Massachusetts Legislature (1843) (PDF 26 KB)
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, Seneca Falls Declaration of Rights and Sentiments (1848) (PDF 23 KB)
Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience (1849) (PDF 60 KB)
Dred Scott v Sanford (1857) (PDF 23 KB)
Abraham Lincoln's "House Divided" Speech (1858) (PDF 25 KB)
Abraham Lincoln's First Inaugural Address (1861) (PDF 38 KB)
Emancipation Proclamation (1863) (PDF 17 KB)
Gettysburg Address (1863) (PDF 37 KB)
Josiah Strong, Our Country (1885) (PDF 25 KB)
Populist Party Platform (1892) (PDF 31 KB)
Plessy v Ferguson (1896) (PDF 63 KB)
Roosevelt Corollary (1904) (PDF 39 KB)
Theodore Roosevelt, The New Nationalism (1910) (PDF 54 KB)
FDR's 1st Inaugural Address (1933) (PDF 49 KB)
Brown v Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954) (PDF 53 KB)
Comparison of Plessy and Brown cases (PDF 38 KB)
Synopsis on The Wonderful World of Oz as a Populist parable (PDF 15 KB)
Atlantic Charter (1941) (PDF 48 KB)
Letter from Ho Chi Minh to Truman (PDF 11 KB)
Marshall Plan (1947) (PDF 27 KB)
Southern Manifesto on Integration (1956) (PDF 73 KB)
Martin Luther King Jr, Letter from a Birmingham Jail (1963) (PDF 85 KB)
Martin Luther King Jr, I have a Dream speech (1963) (PDF 35 KB)

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