Student Lesson

Section 5: Discussion

You have examined at least two different primary source documents. Summarize your findings. Did other students in the class examine the same documents? Do they have the same observations that you and your group do? What is different? What is the same? What do you think about the sources of the documents? Are they believable? Why or why not?

Discuss the following questions with your classmates:

1. What was slavery like for African-Americans in the period before the Civil War?
2. Was any document completely believable? Completely unbelievable? Why or why not?
3. Did some types of sources seem less believable than other kinds of sources? Why do you think this is true?
4. What information about slavery did each document provide? How did looking at several documents expand your understanding of slavery?
5. If you found contradictory information in the sources, which sources did you tend to believe? Why?
6. What generalizations about primary historical sources can you make based on this document set?
7. What additional sources (and types of sources) would you like to see to give you greater confidence in your understanding of slavery?

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