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AFS/HIST 220 African History to 1880s

This guide is designed to help the students in Dr. Candido's Fall 2024 Semester class with their research.

What are Primary Sources?

  • Primary sources are original materials that provide direct evidence or first-hand testimony concerning a topic or event -- firsthand records created by people who actually participated in or remembered an event and reported on the event and their reactions to it.
  • Primary sources can be contemporary sources created at the time when the event occurred (e.g., letters and newspaper articles) or later (such as, memoirs and oral history interviews).
  • Primary sources may be published or unpublished. Unpublished sources include unique materials (e.g., family papers) often referred to as archives and manuscripts.

EXAMPLES OF PRIMARY SOURCES

Primary sources typically include such items as:

  • manuscripts, letters, first-person diaries, memoirs, personal journals, interviews, speeches, oral histories, and other materials individuals used to describe events in which they were participants or observers. Many of these materials frequently are referred to as "papers";
  • records of government agencies and other organizations, including such documents as parliamentary debates, proceedings of organization meetings, conferences, etc. Many of these materials frequently are referred to as "archives";
  • original documents such as birth certificates, marriage and baptismal registers, wills, trial transcripts, etc.;
  • published materials written at the time of the event, including newspapers, news magazines, advertising, cartoons, and other ephemeral publications such as pamplets and flyers;
  • contemporary creative works of literature, art, and music, such as novels, paintings, compositions, poems, etc.;
  • contemporary photographs, maps, audio recordings, television and radio broadcasts, and moving pictures;
  • Internet communications including email, listservs, and blogs;
  • statistical and numeric data collected by various government and private agencies, including census data, opinion polls, and other surveys;
  • research reports and case studies in the sciences or social sciences;
  • artifacts of all kinds such as coins, clothing, fossils, furniture, and musical instruments from the time period under study

Primary sources sometimes can be ambiguous and contradictory, reflecting a specific person's opinions and contemporary cultural influences on them. For that very reason such sources are invaluable tools for developing your own interpretations and reaching your own conclusions about what is going on at a point in time.

What are Secondary Sources?

  • Secondary sources interpret, analyze, and discuss the evidence provided by primary sources. Examples of secondary sources include scholarly books and articles.
  • Secondary sources are generally a second-hand account or observation at least one step removed from the event, i.e., accounts written after the fact by people not present when an event took place. Such sources are second-hand interpretations of what occurred.
  • Secondary sources, however, can be considered to be primary sources depending on the context of their use. For example, Ken Burns' documentary of the Civil War is a secondary source for Civil War researchers (because it consists of Burns' interpretation of primary source materials from the Civil War), but a primary source for those studying documentary filmmaking.
  • Secondary sources benefit from the filter of time and differing cultural contexts and perspectives which may assist (or interfere with) scholarly analysis.

Secondary sources can include:

  • biographical works;
  • commentaries and critical reviews;
  • books other than fiction or autobiographies
  • journal, newspaper, and magazine articles written well after an event takes place

*Some of the above material is used with permission from the University of Pittsburgh Library's research guide on Primary Sources