Primary Sources
As you read the primary sources below, complete the following questions for each:
1. Main Idea: In your own words, what is the main idea of this document?
2. Historical Context: Consider where and when the document was created and how this may affect the meaning of the document. Identify the particular historical trends, processes, events, specific circumstances of time and places, and/or to broader regional, national, or global processes in which the document fits.
3. Audience: Identify for whom was the document created and how this might affect the reliability of the source. It is very important in constructing your argument about the intended audience that you go beyond what is noted in the source line of the document.
4. Purpose: Consider what the goal, reason or motive was behind the author's choice to create the document. Identify the author's endgame, what they hope to accomplish, and why they are writing the document.
5. Point of View: Consider what about the author's identity causes them to say what they say. Try to establish a better understanding of the identity of the author. Consider what is the authors profession? Gender? Social Class? Religion? Ethnicity? Etc. Then go further and explain how one of these factors may have influenced the content of the source. You should both identify an influence that may have shaped the author or source and explain how that particular influence specifically affected the content of the content.
6. Significance: How does this source help you to answer the question: Did emancipation apply to women during Lincoln's presidency?
1. Main Idea: In your own words, what is the main idea of this document?
2. Historical Context: Consider where and when the document was created and how this may affect the meaning of the document. Identify the particular historical trends, processes, events, specific circumstances of time and places, and/or to broader regional, national, or global processes in which the document fits.
3. Audience: Identify for whom was the document created and how this might affect the reliability of the source. It is very important in constructing your argument about the intended audience that you go beyond what is noted in the source line of the document.
4. Purpose: Consider what the goal, reason or motive was behind the author's choice to create the document. Identify the author's endgame, what they hope to accomplish, and why they are writing the document.
5. Point of View: Consider what about the author's identity causes them to say what they say. Try to establish a better understanding of the identity of the author. Consider what is the authors profession? Gender? Social Class? Religion? Ethnicity? Etc. Then go further and explain how one of these factors may have influenced the content of the source. You should both identify an influence that may have shaped the author or source and explain how that particular influence specifically affected the content of the content.
6. Significance: How does this source help you to answer the question: Did emancipation apply to women during Lincoln's presidency?
Cooper Union Speech (February 27, 1860)
Lincoln gives a speech to the Young Men's Republican Club of New York focused on the Founding Fathers intent behind the Constitution and slavery.
housedivided.dickinson.edu/sites/lincoln/cooper-union-speech-february-27-1860/
housedivided.dickinson.edu/sites/lincoln/cooper-union-speech-february-27-1860/
The Second Confiscation Act (July 17, 1862)
This act was signed into law by Lincoln and stated that all slaves of rebel owners were now free, and that the president could employ as many persons of African descent as needed to stop the rebellion.
www.freedmen.umd.edu/conact2.htm
www.freedmen.umd.edu/conact2.htm
The Militia Act of 1862 (July 17, 1862)
Passed the same day as the Second Confiscation Act, this act provided that freed slaves who served in the military would be free, as would their mother, wife and children.
www.freedmen.umd.edu/milact.htm
www.freedmen.umd.edu/milact.htm
First Draft of Emancipation (July 22, 1862)
Lincoln's first draft of his famous Emancipation Proclamation.
housedivided.dickinson.edu/sites/lincoln/first-draft-of-emancipation-july-22-1862/
housedivided.dickinson.edu/sites/lincoln/first-draft-of-emancipation-july-22-1862/
Remarks on Colonization (August 14, 1862)
Lincoln met with a group of black leaders and gave the following address in which he encouraged listeners to support the idea of colonization of free slaves because he doubted they would ever be treated as equals due to racism in America.
housedivided.dickinson.edu/sites/lincoln/remarks-on-colonization-august-14-1862/
housedivided.dickinson.edu/sites/lincoln/remarks-on-colonization-august-14-1862/
Letter to Horace Greeley (August 22, 1862)
A letter from Lincoln to Horace Greeley in response to an angry letter Greeley had published in his newspaper, the New York Tribune, on August 20, 1862.
housedivided.dickinson.edu/sites/lincoln/letter-to-horace-greeley-august-22-1862/
housedivided.dickinson.edu/sites/lincoln/letter-to-horace-greeley-august-22-1862/
Reply to Emancipation Memorial (September 13, 1862)
Lincoln gives his thoughts on the challenges of emancipation.
housedivided.dickinson.edu/sites/lincoln/reply-to-emancipation-memorial-september-13-1862/
housedivided.dickinson.edu/sites/lincoln/reply-to-emancipation-memorial-september-13-1862/
Emancipation Proclamation (January 1, 1863)
After waiting for a major Union victory, Lincoln made his executive order public. This proclamation promised to free enslaved people in Confederate states (excluding certain areas) and authorized the immediate enlistment of black men in the Union military.
housedivided.dickinson.edu/sites/lincoln/emancipation-proclamation-january-1-1863/
housedivided.dickinson.edu/sites/lincoln/emancipation-proclamation-january-1-1863/
Draft of a Communication to Stephen A. Hurlbut (August 15, 1863)
In a draft to General Hurlbut about what to do with contraband in the Mississippi Valley, Lincoln describes one of his most difficult struggles: what to do with contraband who were of no use to the state because they were unable to serve in the military (women, children, and the elderly).
quod.lib.umich.edu/l/lincoln/lincoln6/1:806?rgn=div1;singlegenre=All;sort=occur;subview=detail;type=simple;view=fulltext;q1=subsistence+out+of+the+ground
quod.lib.umich.edu/l/lincoln/lincoln6/1:806?rgn=div1;singlegenre=All;sort=occur;subview=detail;type=simple;view=fulltext;q1=subsistence+out+of+the+ground
Letter to Salmon Chase (September 2, 1863)
Secretary of Treasury Salmon P. Chase argued against excluding certain areas from emancipation. In this letter, Lincoln defends his choice by stating there is no military necessity to free slaves in these territories.
housedivided.dickinson.edu/sites/lincoln/letter-to-salmon-chase-september-2-1863/
housedivided.dickinson.edu/sites/lincoln/letter-to-salmon-chase-september-2-1863/