Derek Abrahams

Lesson #2

Learning History through Primary Sources (not a textbook)

Grade Level: High School

Objectives:

Make students familiar with the different types of primary sources available at local museum (OTCHS)
Students will use the various documents (newspapers, maps, affidavits, census, military records, obituaries) to learn about early African Americans in Fergus Falls, Deer Creek and Battle Lake
Students should improve problem solving skills as they investigate inconsistencies in records as well as make connections between the documents
Students will identify different types of primary sources and the purpose of each in research
Students will learn how historians use primary sources in order to write history and the detective work that is often included in putting all of the pieces together.

Materials included (you may include documents appropriate to your area)

List of Documents (each pdf is numbered accordingly)

#1 – Newspaper Article – “Colored Colonists” – Fergus Falls Weekly Journal – April 7, 1898

This article describes the recent influx of African American families into Fergus Falls

#2 – Newspaper Articles – “Chocolate Drops” and “Mulattoes Not Removed” – Battle Lake Review – April 15 and 22, 1915

These articles talk about a “situation” where a white woman and her mulatto children are put up in Battle Lake and the town is trying to remove them

#3 – Affidavit for Pension for Nelson Preston
#4 – Declaration for Pension for Nelson Preston
#5 – 1900 Census in Deer Creek including family of Nelson Preston
#6 – Military pension for Nelson Preston
# 7 – Pension form for children of Nelson Preston after his death
#8 – 1880 Census in Deer Creek including Nelson Preston
#9 – Homestead Application for Nelson Preston
#10 – Plat Map of Deer Creek
#11 – Nelson Preston Obituaries
#12 – 1900 Census in Fergus Falls
#13 – 1900 Census including Emory Family (same family mentioned in document #2))
#14 – 1910 Census including Emory Family (same family mentioned in document #2)
#15 – 1900 Census in FF including Honeycutt Family

Other possible materials:

North Star: Minnesota’s Black Pioneers video from Twin Cities Public Television

Overview

There are many possibilities or activities that can be done with these documents. Here are some of the activities I plan on doing with them but any teacher should feel free to switch in more appropriate documents or create other activities to do with these documents.
Each activity could stand on its own, so not all of them need to be necessarily done to its completion depending on the amount of time you have to spend on it
The main goal is to get students investigating documents and problem solving using different documents on the same people.

Procedure

Introduction: Show Prince Honeycutt segment from North Star DVD. If interested, the DVD has a website with excellent resources and lesson plans to go with all parts of the DVD at www.tpt.org/northstar/

For my purposes I will have them take notes on any significant facts such as names, reasons for migration, why the left etc.

Activity #1 (use worksheet #1):

Put students into groups of 2 or 3
Give each group one of the 15 documents.
Have them complete worksheet #1 for each document
When they are done, have them pass the document on to the next group and continue until all groups have seen all 15 documents

**Teachers note – depending on your numbers, you may want to make a complete set of documents for each group especially for the other activities

Activity #2 – Gathering Information from Each Source (Worksheet #2)

This activity will get students to look at each document very closely to get them to see inconsistencies as well as connections to some of the other documents

**teachers note – take out any answers before printing off sheets. These are just there to help you out if the question is not very clear.

Activity #3 – Optional if you have the money, time and research museum available to you

Students should choose another ethnic group prominent in your area and research primary sources to learn more about them and their influence in our area
Use some of the same procedures as we used for this activity

Other Activities:

Use the Census forms (or any others you can find) to talk about what they ask for, how they got the information, discrepancies etc.
Use the Homestead form and map to tie in with a unit on The Homestead Act or westward expansion.
Search the documents and develop some more questions or inquiries about the people and go through the research process to try to answer those questions.
Look at inconsistencies (i.e. Nelson Preston’s two obituaries) and try to formulate reason why inconsistencies would occur during this time.

Worksheet #1 Groups Members____________________________

______________________________

Identifying primary sources

Directions: Answer the following for each of the 15 primary sources

a. What is it?

b. What is its purpose?

c. Identify anything interesting or that stands out to you.

#1 a.

#2 a.

#3 a.

#4 a.

#5 a.

#6 a.

#7 a.

#8 a.

#9 a.

#10 a.

#11 a.

#12 a.

#13 a.

#14 a.

#15 a.

Worksheet #2 Group Members:

Learning History through Primary Sources

Directions: This is set up as a lab type activity. Stations will be set up around the room with the appropriate documents at each station and you will then move from station to station to complete this worksheet or each group will be provided all of the documents and you will complete all of the “stations” without moving around depending on teacher preference.

Station 1 – Origin of African Americans in Fergus Falls

For this station you will use Document #1 and refer to your notes from the DVD

Read the article titled “Colored Colonists”

How many African Americans moved to Fergus Falls in one day?

Why did they come to Fergus Falls?

Where did they come from?

Who helped them find living arrangements?

What caused many of them to move away eventually? Refer to DVD notes.

Station 2 – Controversy in Battle Lake

For this station you will use Document #2 as well as two others you will have to find

Read both articles on this page and BRIEFLY summarize what the articles are about.

What is the main problem as seen by the people of Battle Lake?
Not the language used in the article as well as the titles and subtitles. What words or phrases are used that shows you that the people of Battle Lake do not want them around or consider them “a problem”.

What happened to the father?

What do you find most interesting about his circumstance? (in other words the reason)

Were the people of Battle Lake successful in removing the family? Why or why not?

What eventually happened to Mrs. Emery and her children?

Lets say you wanted to find out more about her and her children like how many, names and ages. What type of document could you find something like that?

Using some of the other documents provided answer the following questions

(note that there were often discrepancies in official records and people often went by slightly different names etc.)

**Teacher note: the other document is #14 (1910 census). Research shows this is the same family though the father goes by a different name in Census from the newspaper article. He goes by Andrew J. in census and John in newspaper. Middle initial may stand for John??

Assuming you found the other document, (make sure you look at all of them to determine which one works BEST for you) what discrepancy did you find between the two? What is a possible explanation of the discrepancy?

How many children did Mrs. Emery have?

What was her name?

What were their names and how old were each when this article in the Battle Lake Review was written?

Find another document that involves the Emery family (this should be an earlier document than the one you were previously using). What is another discrepancy you found between these two documents? Can you come up with a reason why there would be a difference?

**Teachers note – this is document #13 (an earlier census of Emory Family). The discrepancy is the place of birth for his mother.

Station 3 – Nelson Preston

For this station you will use documents #3-11 as well as one other you will have to find on your own. Looking at all of these documents, answer the following questions.

1. What can you learn about the history of Nelson Preston (before he moved to the Deer Creek area)?

2. Nelson Preston had a total of two wives throughout his life.

a. What was the first wife’s name? What happened to her? How do you know?

b. What was his second wife’s name? Where was she originally from? How much younger is she than Nelson? Where did you find this information?

3. How many children in all did Nelson have or take care of? (Be careful, you will need to use at least 3 different documents to compile this) What documents did you use?

4. Was Nelson Preston literate? How can you find out? What documents as well as the information in them tells you this information. (clue: there is more than one). List all the documents that give you this information.

5. What can you find out about Nelson Preston’s appearance from these documents? It is noted that he is African-American but what in the documents indicates that he might look a little different compared to other African-Americans in the area?

6. Using documents #9 and #10 answer the following questions.

a. Where was Nelson’s homestead in relation to Deer Creek?

b. How big was it?

c. As you learned in the DVD, African Americans often times had trouble finding good land through the homestead act. Why do you think Nelson was able to do this?

Station 4 – From Prince Honeycutt to Nelson Preston

For the station use documents #5, 7, 8 and 11 as well as your notes from the DVD

1. Look through these documents. What is the connection between Prince Honeycutt of Fergus Falls and Nelson Preston of Deer Creek?

2. Who specifically is that connection? Be careful, remember not all accounts or documents show the exact same information (names, birthdates etc.) Use your notes from the DVD.

3. Create a family tree for Nelson Preston starting with his first wife going all the way using as many names as possible.

Click Here for a PDF download of the sources.

American Crossroads: Teaching History on the Great Plains

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