HOW DO HISTORIANS STUDY HISTORY

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HOW DO HISTORIANS STUDY HISTORY?

• BY FINDING PRIMARY SOURCES
• BY ANALYZING THE PRIMARY SOURCE
• BY CREATING POSSIBLE EXPLANATIONS
• BY INTERPRETING THE PRIMARY SOURCES ROLE IN
  HISTORY

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COURT RECORDS

• Court document regarding Anthony Johnson
• By virtue of a writt granted to me from names
  listed here, which are illegible John Stringer
  Escheator for the countys of Northhampton and
  Accomack to enquire what lands Anthonio Johnson
  late of Accomack County either in his life tyme.
  . . a jury of free. . . in the said Accomack
  County to enquire. . . doth declare that the said
  Anthony Johnson lately deceased in his life tyme
  was seized of fifty acres of land now in the
  possession of Rich. Johnson in the County of
  Accomack aforesaid and further that the said
  Anthony Johnson was a negro and by consequence an
  alien and for that cause the said land doth
  escheat to this . . . . From the collections of
  the Library of Congress
• In 1641, Massachusetts became the first colony
  to legally recognize slavery. Other states, such
  as Virginia, followed. In 1662, Virginia decided
  all children born in the colony to a slave mother
  would be enslaved. Slavery was not only a
  life-long condition now it could be passed, like
  skin color, from generation to generation.

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PRIMARY SOURCES

• Advertisements

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Personal Inventory
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Broadside
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• How to Analyze a Document