Primary Sources

–Material written or produced during the actual time being investigated. This implies that the researcher cannot go further back to any existing sources for this source.

–Examples:

•Diaries, journals, speeches, interviews, letters, memos, manuscripts, memoirs, autobiographies, government records, records of organizations

•Published materials (books and journal/newspaper articles) written at the time about a particular event

•Documentary: photographs, audio recordings, movies or videos

•Public opinion polls, field notes, scientific experiments, artifacts

•Reprinted primary sources

•Maps, oral histories postcards, court records, paintings, sculptures, consumer surveys, patents, schematic drawings, technical reports, personal accounts, jewelry, private papers, deeds, wills, proceedings, census data (Primary vs. Secondary Sources)

 

Secondary Sources

–Records generated by an event but written by non-participants in the event. Based on or derived from primary sources, but they have been interpreted or analyzed.

–Examples

•Encyclopedias, chronologies, fact books

•Biographies, monographs, dissertations

•General histories

•Most journal articles (except those written at the time)

•Most published books (except those published at the time, reprints of primary sources, or autobiographies)

 

Where to find primary sources:

Annals of America ([REF] E173 .A793 1978)

Online Catalog

Primary Sources Subject Headings:
Archives
Autobiography
Correspondence
Diaries
Indian Treaties
Interviews
Laws
Memoirs
Personal Narratives (or the word ‘narrative’ in the title of a book, usually)
Sources (this is the main subject heading for primary sources)
Treaties

 

Look for books with the following subject headings:

Africans AND (Colonies OR Colonial) (Subject keyword)
America—Colonies
America—Discovery and Exploration
America—Early accounts to 1600
Colonies—America (browse for more)
Colonies—America—History (browse for more)
Colonists—History—Sources
Colonization. America
Colonization—History (browse for more)
First Contact with Europeans (browse for more)
Indians of North America—Cultural Assimilation (for before 1800)
Indians of North America—Diseases
Indians of North America—First Contact with Europeans
Indians of North America—History—18th century
Indians of North America—History—Colonial Period
Indians of North America—Southern States—History North America—History—Colonial Period

Slavery AND (Colonies OR Colonial) (subject keyword)
United States—History—Colonial Period

United States--Emigration and Immigration

 

American Memory Collections (Library of Congress)
Infomine (infomine.ucr.edu)

 

Full text databases

www.lahc.edu/databases

Academic OneFile – powerful search strategies, limited in depth
JSTOR – deep coverage of subjects, weak search strategies

 

Citations

Plagiarism can be avoided very simply: when you paraphrase a quotation, cite. When you directly quote, cite. When you state a fact that is not common knowledge, find a reliable source and cite it.

Chicago style:

Superscript, footnotes or endnotes, bibliography

Good introduction: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/717/01/

Rules for many sources http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/resdoc5e/RES5e_ch10_s1-0001.html

Sample paper: http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/resdoc5e/RES5e_ch10_s1-0007.html