Using Primary Sources to Teach Literature A Presentation by Dr. Therese Rizzo

How Can Primary Sources Change the Way We Read Fiction? The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne  A novel that uses Puritanism and the seventeenth century as a frame to critique nineteenth-century hypocrisy and bigotry.  How Can Primary Sources Help Us Understand this Text?  Understanding the Seventeenth Century:  Excerpts from Of Plymouth Plantation, William Bradford  “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” John Edwards  Excerpts from The Salem Witch Trials Manuscripts  Excerpts from The Wonders of the Invisible World, Cotton Mather

How Can Primary Sources Change the Way We Read Fiction? The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne  A novel that uses Puritanism and the seventeenth century as a frame to critique nineteenth-century hypocrisy and bigotry.  How Can Primary Sources Help Us Understand this Text?  Understanding the Nineteenth Century:  Excerpts from Fanny Fern Newspaper Articles  Articles from Godey’s Lady’s Magazines  Excerpts from Sarah Josepha Hale’s Woman’s Record; or Sketches of all Distinguished Women  Excerpts from William Sprague’s Letters on Practical Subjects to a Daughter  Excerpts from Nineteenth-Century Conduct Manuals

Students Become Part of the Period When they Analyze the Period

Lessons Using Primary Sources Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe  Primary Sources:  Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacobs  12 Years a Slave, Solomon Northup  The Heroic Slave, Frederick Douglass  The Southern Negro As He Is, George Stetson

Lessons Using Primary Sources  “Life in the Iron Mills,” Rebecca Harding Davis  Loom and Spindle; or, Life among the Early Mill Girls, Harriet Hanson Robinson  The Lowell Offering: A Repository of Original Articles on Various Subjects, Written by Factory Operatives

Primary Sources Improve Student Writing  Original: “In the nineteenth century, women and the home were considered one and the same, which is shown in Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The narrator’s reference to Mrs. Bird’s curiosity in affairs of state correlates to her curiosity in affairs of the home by referencing the state with the home. She seems to have no business worrying about neither the house of state nor the house of Bird.”

Primary Sources Improve Student Writing  With Primary Sources : “ Nineteenth-century sources show that women and the home were often considered one and the same, an idea which is reflected in Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The narrator’s reference to Mrs. Bird’s curiosity in affairs of state correlates to her curiosity in affairs of the home by connecting the state with the home. She seems to have no business worrying about either the house of state nor the house of Bird, which contradicts the popular notion of women’s roles shown in Johnson’s views on etiquette. Johnson’s etiquette manual says that a husband should, “Consult your wife also in your business affairs. A woman's intuitions often exceed a man's reasoning powers, and enable her to come to conclusions which, if followed, will often lead the way to fortune” (Husbands XI). Johnson clearly merits women’s intellect, and Stowe similarly shows her reader that women should be consulted by critiquing Mr. Bird’s reluctance to discuss these affairs with Mrs. Bird, which takes away her power in the home.”

Primary Sources Improve Student Writing Original : “With Eva and Harry as examples of childlike perfection, the novel insinuates that correct mothering and training of children can directly influence the development of a perfected future America, free of the contamination of slavery.”

Primary Sources Improve Student Writing With Primary Sources: “With Eva and Harry as examples of childlike perfection, the novel insinuates that correct mothering and training of children can directly influence the development of a perfected future America, free of the contamination of slavery. The concept of mothering is presented as the dutiful responsibility of the nineteenth century woman; the idea that children are impressionable and unrestrained demonstrates a child’s need for the agency of an adult to actively facilitate his/her development and growth. Mrs. G.H. Gutterson expresses the importance of mothering in The American Missionary (1865). She states, “But what about the mothering of nations? Long ago God gave the work to Eve when He put the two sons on her knee and said Mother these children; this is your salvation…He says ‘Mother the world.’ Why mother the world? Because you can” (Gutterson 24). Gutterson views mothering as a charge from God, calling it Eve’s salvation. Therefore, from Gutterson’s perspective, in order to find redemption and deliverance from evil, a woman is instructed to mother her children devotedly. Gutterson’s description of Eve’s charge to mother her sons can be paralleled with the society of slavery in the 1800s.”

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