Review: What is a primary source? What is a secondary source?

Example: A movie review What is the difference between seeing a movie and reading a review of that movie? Have you ever read a movie review that you disagreed with? Why do people disagree about movies? Don’t they all see the same movie?

Primary Sources vs. Secondary Sources Both a movie and a movie review can be useful sources of information about the movie. The movie is the “genuine” thing – an important source of information about itself The movie review can give the movie context, because of the knowledge of the reviewer. A movie reviewer might offer background on the director or the characters, for example.

Primary Sources vs. Secondary Sources When studying the past, documents and artifacts from the past are like the “movie” and history (what people describe about the past) is like the “movie review” Primary Source: documents and artifacts – first hand or original sources of information Secondary Source: history books – they are secondary because they are secondhand information or information “once removed”

Primary Sources vs. Secondary Sources Primary sources are useful because they are direct sources of information from the past about the past (like going to the movie) Secondary sources are useful because they give context, based on knowledge. They also give interpretation – just like movie reviews, histories can disagree on what’s important

Jacques Cartier In 1534, Henri II of France sponsored Jacques Cartier to go on an expedition in order to find a passage to Asia through North America. The King wanted Cartier to discover certain islands and lands where it was said to contain great quantities of gold and Cartier was to claim these lands for France. Cartier led 3 voyages in which he attempted to secure riches for France. He sailed in around Gaspe Peninisula and down the St. Lawrence River. On his second voyage, Cartier was forced to spend a winter in Stadacona and many of his crew fell ill to scurvy. Scurvy- a disease resulting from lack of Vitamin C that causes internal bleeding. The people of Stadacona gave his crew a tea made from needles of a white cedar tree that was rich in Vitamin C.

Jacques Cartier Cartier was hoping to gain fame from his travels and before he returned to France. He kidnapped Donnaconna and his sons and brought them back to France so that they could tell Henri II about the immense riches that were available in North America. However the Aboriginals died after contracting diseases in France because they had not built up immunity. Immunity-the ability of the body to fight off infections. Cartier returned to France with "false diamonds" (which he thought were real) as well as iron pyrite (which he thought was gold) Once it was determined that these treasures were worthless, Cartier was disgraced and the King of France stopped all expeditions for nearly 50 years.

Short in-class Assignment: Imagine you were Jacques Cartier and you had to explain to Henri II what you had discovered in North America. In a short paragraph, you may speak in first person, you need to describe to the King of France what you had discovered and attempt to convince him that he should sponsor another expedition.

As a class read p. 52-54 Independently students are to answer p. 54

Moment in History p. 55 Historians agree that the primary-source document shows that Cartier deliberately misled the Stadaconans. I challenge you to “find the fib” Why didn’t Cartier explain the real purpose of the cross? Respond: answer question on p. 55