History of the United States I / Unit 17 USH1 2436 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Reading a Document Against Its Author
The idea
The course taught one method repeatedly and it is worth stating on its own. Ask what a document was for and who was meant to read it, before asking whether it is true. The probanzas of the Spanish explorers were written to claim reward from a crown, which shapes what they report. Sarah Bradford's life of Harriet Tubman was written to raise money and a reputation. Frances Dana Gage published her version of Sojourner Truth's speech twelve years after the event, during a war, for readers who needed a symbol. Dolly Sumner Lunt itemised her losses while describing the removal of people she owned.
In practice
Four sources, none of them fabricated, each shaped by a purpose the text does not announce.
Where people slip
The method does not conclude that sources lie. It concludes that every source was made by someone for something, and knowing what usually explains the parts that look strange. Apply it hardest to the sources you find most congenial, since those are the ones whose purposes are easiest to overlook. This is the most transferable skill in the course and it is the one an exam cannot test directly.
Your place on the trail
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