What is a Primary Source? A primary source is a document or physical object which was written or created during the time under study.   Secondary sources are documents written after an event has occurred, providing secondhand accounts

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Choose the secondary source "The bill for establishing religious freedom... I had drawn in all the latitude of reason and right. It still met with opposition; but with some mutilations in the preamble, it was finally passed; and a singular proposition proved that it's protection of opinion was meant to be universal. Where the preamble declares that coercion is a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, an amendment was proposed, by inserting the word 'Jesus Christ,' so that it should read 'a departure from the plan of Jesus Christ, the holy author of our religion.' The insertion was rejected by a great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mahometan, the Hindoo, and infidel of every denomination." The Virginia statute is one of the great statements of freedom of religion, and its authorship is one of the three accomplishments in his life that Jefferson asked to have inscribed on his tombstone. Written by Jefferson in 1779, this original proposal was slightly reworked by the legislature under the guidance of James Madison, then passed in 1786. In his autobiography, Jefferson wrote of it: