| Assignment: Write a short history of the rise of industrialism in Lowell, Massachusetts, 1820s-1850s, using the primary source documents included with this handout. |
Primary Sources: Historians
learn about history from primary source documents (i.e., eyewitness
accounts of historical events). This critical questions exercise
is designed to give you practice working with primary source documents
while helping you learn more about one of the most important developments
of early nineteenth-century America: the Market Revolution and
the rise of industrialism.
For this exercise, you will be examining a variety of primary
sources, including: autobiographies and memoirs, letters written
by factory workers, travel accounts by foreigners visiting the
U.S., government reports, exposes written by social reformers,
pictures and songs, contemporary histories, and public relations
articles and other documents produced by the manufacturer.
As you use these sources, critically evaluate their strengths
and weaknesses as sources. You might think of yourself as an
attorney cross-examining a witness (in this situation, the witness
is the author of the document). How reliable is the witness?
Did the witness actually see the events he is describing or is
he just passing along information someone else told him? Does
the witness have a bias or personal outlook which might color
his understanding of an event? Or, does the witness have a stake
in the case which might cause him consciously to slant his testimony?
Did the events happen so long ago that the witness' memory may
be faulty? Or, are the events so recent that the testimony is
colored by the emotions of the moment? If the witness offers
physical evidence such as a picture, is it an accurate representation
of reality or might it have been staged. Keep in mind that testimony
about one aspect of the event may be weaker or stronger than other
parts of the testimony. In writing your essay, give greater weight
to the reliable testimony (though even a generally unreliable
witness may have a thing or two of importance to say)..
Secondary Sources: Historians
also learn about history from secondary sources (documents written
by other historians based on primary sources). You will want to
read Tindall and Shi, America: A Narrative History,
489-492, for background on the factory system at Lowell. However,
the point of this exercise is to learn how to use primary sources.
I am, therefore, placing some restrictions on your use of secondary
sources. You must draw your paper
only from the primary source documents included in this handout.
Thesis Statement: Organize your
paper around a thesis statement, an argumentative statement you
are trying to prove with evidence from primary sources. Somewhere
near the beginning of your paper (the first paragraph is usually
a good spot), your paper should include a statement which says
something like this: "This paper argues that. . . ."
Your job in the paper is to present evidence and argument which
will prove that your thesis is correct.
Narrowing and Focusing the Topic:
Remember, a good history of an event will answer these questions:
(1) What happened in the event, when did it happen, and who was
involved in the event? (2) What caused the event to happen?
(3) What were the consequences of the event?
Many different things may be considered historical events: histories
of institutions (such as the factory system at Lowell), economic
trends (such as the development of industrialism or the Market
Revolution), changes in the status or relations of racial, gender,
or economic groups (such as women, farmers, or factory workers),
and changes in intellectual concepts (such as concepts of property
and labor, right and wrong, freedom and dependency). You may
be able to think of other events associated with industrialism
in Lowell.
In writing your paper, you may focus on one of these events or
survey the whole subject of industrialism in Lowell, as long as
you can organize your paper around a thesis statement you are
trying to prove with evidence.
Footnotes: Use traditional footnotes
(not parenthetical references). Your footnotes may be located
either at the bottom of the page or at the end of the paper.
If you use a word processor such as Microsoft Word or WordPerfect,
putting footnotes at the bottom of the page is very easy. Use
the pull-down menus on the menu bar to look for the word: "footnote."
Click on that word and your software should guide you through
the process with relative ease. (In Microsoft products such as
MS Word and MS Works, you can usually find footnotes by clicking
on "Insert" on the menu bar and then "Footnote."
For this paper, use a modified version of traditional notes, citing
sources by the title of each document and the page number printed
on the page. For instance, if your first two notes were citations
to the first and the thirty-second page of the handouts, your
first two notes would look like this:
1"Lowell: The New City of Factories," 87.
2"'Regulations to Be Observed,' Hamilton Manufacturing
Company, 1848," 156-157.
If you put your footnotes at the bottom of the page, be sure to
separate them from the main text with a line (hit the underline
key 20 times).
Length of the Paper: Your paper
should be five or fewer pages long (not including footnotes).
Due Date: Your paper is due
November 5.
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Departmental Courses in American History and Civilization:
Dr. Harold D. Tallant, Department of History, Georgetown College | |||||
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