Purpose: The purpose of this assignment is to help you develop skills in assessing primary documents   Historians use primary documents to open a window on the past and to answer historical questions.  Primary documents are the artifacts from the past that we historians have access to.  Although they are often written documents, like letters, reports, diaries, speeches, and legal documents, they can also be images, like maps, drawings or pieces of art.  When historians want to answer questions about the past, they turn to primary documents.  But primary documents have to be interpreted and used with care.  If possible, an historian wants answers to the following questions: who wrote the document; for what purpose was it created; who was the intended audience?  And that just is the beginning of the process historians call "sourcing."  Just as important, historians should think about what is being emphasized in a source, and what is being left out. 

Skills: In this assignment, you will work on the following historical thinking skill: how to evaluate and make judgments about the accuracy and reliability of primary documents.

Task: Read the two Christopher Columbus documents provided to you with this link.  Both of these documents date from Columbus’ first voyage across the Atlantic Ocean in 1492-93.  One document is an excerpt from his logbook, or the diary he kept during the voyage.  And the second is a letter he wrote on the voyage back to Spain, describing what he had encountered.  But it is clear that he intended to present both the logbook and the letter to the two Spanish monarchs who had sponsored his voyage, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella.   So we can regard them as his "official report" to his benefactors, and an effort to persuade them to sponsor a second voyage.

For this assignment, you should first read the two documents carefully, and then:

1. Identify three examples from the documents of what you judge to be reliable pieces of information.  What in your view makes them reliable?

2. Identify three examples of what you would judge to be unreliable pieces of information.  What in your view makes them unreliable?

3. Finally, write a paragraph in response to the following question: Can documents like these be used as evidence by historians?  If so, how should they best be used?

Your total submission should be about 2 pages, double-spaced.  For the first two items, make you explain why you consider your examples to be reliable or unreliable.  Your submission is due on Friday, February 25, and is worth 35 points.  If you wish, you can copy-and-paste the three questions into your document and add your answers.  Please submit your assignment using the submission button at the top of this page.