The Internet and Primary Sources

I have so much respect for the homeschooling parents that came before me; before the age of Google and the internet. Technology makes my job so much easier. If I need primary sources for a unit is history, a quick Google search and I'm on my way. It's so much more convenient and efficient than a trip to the library and using a card catalog, or worse, microfilm. Incidentally, I recently had to explain to Casia what a these were and how they worked. It made me feel so old.

Our most recent unit in history has been the creation of the United State government and its early documents. It is a perfect unit in which to use primary sources. We started with the website, america.gov, that gives an explanation of the documents created and used by our federal and state governments from the Declaration of Independence, to the Articles of Confederations, through the Constitution. And then we moved on to the documents themselves. I found this great site, ourdocuments.gov, that makes these documents, actual images of the original documents, available along with typed transcripts and explanatory notes. Other sites we used included: the Library of Congress, Founding.com, the Massachusetts Historical Society and america.gov. 

Casia delighted in looking at the images of the original documents. Even though they were difficult for her to decipher, she loved seeing the actual images to see these parts of our history for herself. On the Lee Resolution it looks as if some notes were taken on the bottom half, including a list of what appeared to be the colonies (but just twelve of them) with two columns along side. The one titled A had lines marked along each colony name and the under the column marked N there were no marks. I told Casia that it looked like a tally of 'ayes' and 'nays'; presumably voting in favor of the resolution.

We happened to have a paper copy of the Declaration of Independence that Jacob had from when he was a kid that we were able to examine closely. This was fortunate because in the one online it was difficult to see the signatures clearly. Casia had read in a book that one signer of the Declaration of Independence, Stephen Hopkins, who was elderly and suffered from shakiness in his hands had to hold his hand steady to sign the Declaration. He is reported to have said as he did this, “My hand trembles, but my heart does not.” She searched the signatures at the bottom of the Declaration to find his name and pointed out to me that she could see the 'shakiness' of it.

On the Massachusetts Historical Society site, they have copies of letters and transcripts of them, written back and forth between John Adams and his wife, Abigail. Casia and I took particular interest in a letter written by Abigail to her husband just prior to the Declaration of Independence. In it, Abigail urges John to 'remember the ladies' in their development of a new government, warning him that 'if particular care and attention is not paid to the Ladies, we are determined to foment a Rebelion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation." Sadly, despite our 2nd First Lady being quite a feminist in her time, it took almost another 150 years before women were given the right to vote.

I am a huge advocate of using primary sources where available because so many aspects of history are lost when you just read summaries of important events. Being able to see the handwriting and signatures of historical figures and hear events through their own words is such a powerful tool. I think it really allows us to see that these people were real and very much like ourselves in many ways, even scribbling notes in the margins, mixing national interests with domestic matters in correspondence and allowing some of the personalities to shine through in ways that a few typed pages in a history book can't capture. And thanks to modern technology, these experience are more accessible than ever, providing enrichment in our education and our lives.