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Clues to Our Past
Chapter 3
Lesson 1-What is History?
Snow covers King St. in Boston on the morning of March 6, 1770
As you walk down the street you notice dirty footprints in the snow.
You see a spot of red in the middle of the road.
and bullet holes in the shop across the street
You also hear the excited voices of people rushing up and down the frozen street
From their words you discover that a large crowd of people from the town fought British soldiers in King Street
Sadly, several of the townspeople are dead.
All you have seen and heard tells you something happened on King Street. But what really happened?
John Adams- a young Boston lawyer asked the same question.
He defended the British soldiers in the trials following the March 5, 1770
shootings.
This event is known as “The Boston Massacre”
John Adams looked for ….
1.Evidence or proof
2.Talked to people about what they saw
After all this, he realized none of the witnesses told the same story.
Calef – “I heard and saw the British officer say Fire!”
Hickling- “ I was within a yard of him and must have heard him had he spoken it.”
The trial taught him an important lesson.
No one would ever know exactly what happened that night.
History
That is how we find out about the past.
We look at evidence and stories.
Sometimes there is only a little and sometimes there is a lot of it.
We don’t have to know everything about the past, but it is important to study what we do know.
The study of how things are done and said in the past is
A historian is someone who does this.
They look at evidence and stories.
They ask questions such as,
1. Will this evidence help me understand the past?2. Where did this evidence come from?
Knowing where the evidence came from helps historians understand it.
If people are related, they will spin the story in a way that makes a person innocent.
Paul Revere drew these two different pictures of the Boston Massacre for a reason
Historians look at
Chronology- The order events happened.
Your job as a student is to1. Think carefully how history is written2. Know how historians do their job.
Lesson 2- What Does a Historian Do?
Samuel Argall- deputy governor of the English colony of Virginia issued an order in 1618 He said that every man was to plant 2 acres of corn.
Anyone who did not would be made a slave.
This story seems unimportant to us.
To a historian, this story is a mystery.
He/She begins to immediately ask…
Why did the deputy governor have to order people to grow corn?
Were the colonists unwilling or unable to grow corn?
What was going on in the colony of Virginia?
Historians make sense of the past by asking questions.
The answers are often found in the records of people who took part in the past events.
These are called
Historians find answers to their questions from Primary Sources.
Archives
Some sources survive and can be found in books or collections of records
Edmund Morgan found enough resources to answer his questions about the story you read at the beginning of the lesson.
It turns out that he found a primary resource that stated corn was very easy to grow ( you will read about this)
Yet for some reason colonists did not grow it.
Edmund’s next question was
What were they doing?
TobaccoThere was some evidence that tobacco made them lots of money.
Most people came for money and hoped to return to England, their homeland, after making their fortune.
Records showed that people could get rich in one year, and they couldgo home.
So, they’d rather grow tobacco and sell it than to grow corn to feed themselves.
So, most people died trying to get rich
Oral HistoryBy speakingStorytellingPoemsMythsStories- novels
PaintingsToolsFurniture
Official document-laws, business records, tell us the public side of history.
Artifacts
Historians found very few chairs in the 1600s because of the harsh conditions of Virginia.
Historians are like detectives. They look at EVERYTHING!
Chapter 3 Lesson 3-
Why Study History?
Why?
Why?
Why?
EmpathyDifferent Yet Similar
Sometimes when we read about others it’s hard to understand them.
Historians look at all sources of information to help understand about people of the past.
She may seem different, but look closely
Her face might seem familiar
Her jewelry may look familiar
People in the pastPeople living in the other times and places have fun the same way you do.
History was made by people who felt the same way you do.
Many people from history were once the same age as you.
Many of them went to school.
They all laughed, cried, slept, and ate.
Understanding your past is a way to help you understand YOU. And your world.
1988 Fires of YellowstonePeople thought it was a tragedy
After the fires, there was so much for people to learn.
Education took place.
Dr. Linda Wallacecalled it
“A Natural Process of Renewal”
Historians study all sources of information
They ask and want to find out….What happened?
Why did this happen?
What does the evidence say?
Did they ruin or make it a better place?
We can apply all of this to a more
modern event 911
The End for Chapter 3
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