Primary vs. Secondary Sources

Primary Sources Primary Sources: objects or documents created during the time period you are studying

Examples of Primary Sources Newspapers Letters Photographs Paintings Maps Diaries Journals Artifacts Recordings Court records Legal Documents

Advantages of Primary Sources Historians like using primary sources because they give us eye-witness accounts of what happened during the time period They were created by people who were actually there

Disadvantages of Primary Sources Very valuable to historians, but there are a couple of problems: Sometimes the vocabulary is hard to understand Sometimes they are biased they only give you one side of the story

Secondary Sources Secondary sources: created after the time period you are studying Created by someone who was NOT an eye- witness to the event

Examples of Secondary Sources Textbooks Encyclopedias Internet Sites Historical fiction ...and many more

Advantages of Secondary Sources Historians create secondary sources after looking at many primary sources They are valuable to historians because they collect the information from primary sources in one place They are usually not as biased as primary sources

Disadvantages of Secondary Sources People who create secondary sources were not there when the events happened Information can sometimes be skewed or distorted. In other words, sometimes information may not depict the actual occurrence or event 100% accurately

US II Immigration Downtrodden- oppressed, treated badly Stringent- strict Renders- to cause to be or become

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