D2.His.11.9-12: Critiquing the Usefulness of Sources for an Inquiry

Overview

Lesson Procedure

70-70 minutes of class time across 5 phases.

1. Warm-Up10 minutes
2. Direct Instruction20 minutes
3. Guided Practice15 minutes
4. Independent Practice15 minutes
5. Closure10 minutes

1. Warm-Up10 minutes

   Warm-Up Prompt

   "A historian asks: how did a city's summer festival treat the small food vendors who worked at it? She has three sources: the festival's official program, a letter one vendor wrote to the local paper, and a tourism advertisement. Rank them from most to least useful for HER question, and give a reason for each. Would your ranking change if her question were 'What did the festival offer visitors?'"

   Collect two or three rankings. Draw out the key idea: usefulness is not a fixed quality of a source; it depends on the question. The official program is strong evidence of what organizers wanted visitors to see and weak evidence of vendors' experience. The vendor's letter is the reverse. Name the five features the indicator asks students to weigh: maker, date, place of origin, intended audience and purpose. A critique states what a source can and cannot show for a specific inquiry, and why.

2. Direct Instruction20 minutes

   The inquiry. Post the question for the whole lesson: How did the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition represent African Americans, and how did African American writers and speakers respond? The sources are from Chicago in 1893-1894. The World's Columbian Exposition, held at Jackson Park, celebrated "the four-hundredth anniversary of the discovery of America" (Source B, paragraph 2); its official guide gives its dates as May 1 to October 26, 1893, though the fair in fact stayed open until October 30.

   Source A comes from the official guidebook, compiled by John J. Flinn and "issued under authority of the World's Columbian Exposition." Source B comes from a pamphlet, The Reason Why the Colored American Is Not in the World's Columbian Exposition, distributed by Ida B. Wells; its preface is unsigned, and its closing note is signed by Wells. Model the critique on these two before students try the others.

   Five features, and the critique question each one raises for this inquiry

   Feature	Critique question	What it can change about usefulness
   Maker	Who made it, and what did they know or want?	Insider knowledge, authority, a stake in the outcome
   Date	When was it made, compared with the events?	Made during the fair, or later and revised
   Place of origin	Where was it made?	Made at the fair by people who could see it, or elsewhere
   Intended audience	Who was meant to read or hear it?	What the maker explained, stressed or left out
   Purpose	Why was it made?	To guide, to promote, to protest, to persuade

   1The first duty of the visitor who is desirous of obtaining the best possible results from a visit to the World's Columbian Exposition, be his time brief or unlimited, is carefully to study the accompanying map. This is an absolute necessity to one who would not travel aimlessly over the grounds and who has a purpose beyond that of a mere curiosity hunter. It is presumed at the outset that the great majority of visitors are those who seek to enlighten themselves regarding the progress which the world has made in the arts, sciences and industries. To him who enters upon an examination of the external and internal exhibit of this the greatest of World's Fairs a liberal education is assured. It is the aim of this volume to aid in such endeavor—to clear the way of obstacles—to make the pathway broad and pleasant.

   [...]

   2The World's Congress Auxiliary.—The organization is an authorized adjunct of the Exposition, and aims to supplement the exhibit of material progress by the Exposition by a portrayal of the "wonderful achievements of the new age in science, literature, education, government, jurisprudence, morals, charity, religion, and other departments of human activity, as the most effective means of increasing the fraternity, progress, prosperity and peace of mankind." [...]

   [...]

   3Hayti has a beautiful little pavilion in the foreign section, and has exhibits in nearly every department of the Exposition, which serve to illustrate the wonderful progress made by this little republic during recent years. The Haytian building cost $20,000, and the exhibits made by the country $100,000.

   1To the Seeker After Truth:

   2Columbia has bidden the civilized world to join with her in celebrating the four-hundredth anniversary of the discovery of America, and the invitation has been accepted. At Jackson Park are displayed exhibits of her natural resources, and her progress in the arts and sciences, but that which would best illustrate her moral grandeur has been ignored.

   3The exhibit of the progress made by a race in 25 years of freedom as against 250 years of slavery, would have been the greatest tribute to the greatness and progressiveness of American institutions which could have been shown the world. The colored people of this great Republic number eight millions—more than one-tenth the whole population of the United States. They were among the earliest settlers of this continent, landing at Jamestown, Virginia in 1619 in a slave ship, before the Puritans, who landed at Plymouth in 1620. They have contributed a large share to American prosperity and civilization. [...]

   4Those visitors to the World's Columbian Exposition who know these facts, especially foreigners will naturally ask: Why are not the colored people, who constitute so large an element of the American population, and who have contributed so large a share to American greatness,—more visibly present and better represented in this World's Exposition? Why are they not taking part in this glorious celebration of the four-hundredth anniversary of the discovery of their country? Are they so dull and stupid as to feel no interest in this great event? It is to answer these questions and supply as far as possible our lack of representation at the Exposition that the Afro-American has published this volume.

   [...]

   5TO THE PUBLIC.

   6This pamphlet is published by contribution from colored people of the United States. The haste necessary for the press, prevents the incorporation of interesting data showing the progress of the colored people in commercial lines.

   7Besides the cuts of a school and hospital it was desired to have a cut of the Capital Savings Bank, a flourishing institution conducted by the colored people of Washington, D. C. The cut, however, did not arrive in time for the press.

   8Twenty thousand copies of The Reason Why are now ready for gratuitous distribution. Applications by mail will enclose three cents for postage. All orders addressed to the undersigned will be promptly acknowledged. Ida B. Wells,
   Room 9, 128 Clark St.,
   Chicago, Ill.

   9August 30, 1893.

   • Purpose and audience: what the official guide is good evidence for (Source A, paragraph 1)

     How useful is Source A for the first half of the inquiry, how the Exposition represented itself?

     Result: Very useful for the organizers' framing. Its maker worked "under authority of" the Exposition, and its stated purpose is to help visitors "who seek to enlighten themselves regarding the progress which the world has made in the arts, sciences and industries" (paragraph 1). Because it was written to guide and attract visitors, it shows what organizers wanted them to see. The same purpose makes it weak evidence of what was missing: a guidebook has no reason to point out who was left out.

   • Intended audience: who Source B was written for (Source B, paragraphs 4 and 8)

     Source B names its readers. How does that affect its usefulness for the second half of the inquiry?

     Result: The preface addresses "visitors to the World's Columbian Exposition," "especially foreigners" (paragraph 4), and the closing note offers copies by mail for "three cents for postage" (paragraph 8). Writing for outsiders, the makers explain basic facts about Black Americans, such as their number and long history (paragraph 3). That makes Source B strong evidence of how African American writers wanted the world to see the fair; it is an argument made for a purpose, so its claims need checking against other records.

   • Date and maker: when and how Source B was made (Source B, paragraphs 6 and 9)

     The closing note is dated and signed. What do the date and the conditions of publication add to the critique?

     Result: It is dated "August 30, 1893" (paragraph 9), during the fair, and signed by Ida B. Wells. It says the pamphlet "is published by contribution from colored people of the United States" and that "The haste necessary for the press" kept out "interesting data showing the progress of the colored people in commercial lines" (paragraph 6). So it is a source made during the events, by people directly affected, and by its makers' own account an incomplete one.

   • Place of origin and a second look at Source A (Source A, paragraph 3)

     Both sources were made in Chicago during the fair. Does Source A say anything about people of African descent at all?

     Result: Yes, indirectly. The Hayti entry praises "the wonderful progress made by this little republic" and gives the cost of its pavilion and exhibits (paragraph 3). A student could use this to ask why the guide praises one nation's progress while Source B says the progress of Black Americans was "ignored" (paragraph 2). Being made on the spot gives both sources detail; it does not make either one complete.

3. Guided Practice15 minutes

   Pairs read Source C, the opening chapter of the same pamphlet, by Frederick Douglass, and Source D, an address by Fannie Barrier Williams of Illinois to the World's Congress of Representative Women in May 1893. Source A, paragraph 2, explains that the World's Congress Auxiliary was "an authorized adjunct of the Exposition" that held congresses alongside the exhibits; the volume that printed Williams's address calls it a congress held "under the auspices of the Woman's branch" of that Auxiliary.

   For each source, pairs fill in the five features, then write one sentence beginning "For this inquiry, the source is most useful for showing ___ because its maker/date/place/audience/purpose ___." Prompt them to notice two things. Douglass describes his own authority in paragraph 4, so his maker is part of his argument. Williams spoke inside one of the Exposition's official programs, which complicates any claim that African Americans had no part in the fair at all.

   1The colored people of America are not indifferent to the good opinion of the world, and we have made every effort to improve our first years of freedom and citizenship. We earnestly desired to show some results of our first thirty years of acknowledged manhood and womanhood. Wherein we have failed, it has been not our fault but our misfortune, and it is sincerely hoped that this brief story, not only of our successes, but of trials and failures, our hopes and disappointments will relieve us of the charge of indifference and indolence. We have deemed it only a duty to ourselves, to make plain what might otherwise be misunderstood and misconstrued concerning us. To do this we must begin with slavery. The duty undertaken is far from a welcome one.

   2It involves the necessity of plain speaking of wrongs and outrages endured, and of rights withheld, and withheld in flagrant contradiction to boasted American Republican liberty and civilization. It is always more agreeable to speak well of one's country and its institutions than to speak otherwise; to tell of their good qualities rather than of their evil ones.

   [...]

   3All this, and more, we would gladly say of American laws, manners, customs and Christianity. But unhappily, nothing of all this can be said, without qualification and without flagrant disregard of the truth. The explanation is this: We have long had in this country, a system of iniquity which possessed the power of blinding the moral perception, stifling the voice of conscience, blunting all human sensibilities and perverting the plainest teaching of the religion we have here professed, a system which John Wesley truly characterized as the sum of all villanies, and one in view of which Thomas Jefferson, himself a slaveholder, said he "trembled for his country" when he reflected "that God is just and that His justice cannot sleep forever." That system was American slavery. Though it is now gone, its asserted spirit remains.

   4The writer of the initial chapter of this pamphlet, having himself been a slave, knows the slave system both on the inside and outside. Having studied its effects not only upon the slave and upon the master, but also upon the people and institutions by which it has been surrounded, he may therefore, without presumption, assume to bear witness to its baneful influence upon all concerned, and especially to its malign agency in explaining the present condition of the colored people of the United States, who were its victims; and to the sentiment held toward them both by the people who held them in slavery, and the people of the country who tolerated and permitted their enslavement, and the bearing it has upon the relation which we the colored people sustain to the World's Fair. [...]

   5[...] So when it is asked why we are excluded from the World's Columbian Exposition, the answer is Slavery.

   1Less than thirty years ago the term progress as applied to colored women of African descent in the United States would have been an anomaly. The recognition of that term to-day as appropriate is a fact full of interesting significance. That the discussion of progressive womanhood in this great assemblage of the representative women of the world is considered incomplete without some account of the colored women's status is a most noteworthy evidence that we have not failed to impress ourselves on the higher side of American life.

   2Less is known of our women than of any other class of Americans.

   3No organization of far-reaching influence for their special advancement, no conventions of women to take note of their progress, and no special literature reciting the incidents, the events, and all things interesting and instructive concerning them are to be found among the agencies directing their career. There has been no special interest in their peculiar condition as native-born American women. Their power to affect the social life of America, either for good or for ill, has excited not even a speculative interest.

   [...]

   4But a better view of what our women are doing and what their present status is may be had by noticing some lines of progress that are easily verifiable.

   5First it should be noticed that separate facts and figures relative to colored women are not easily obtainable. Among the white women of the country independence, progressive intelligence, and definite interests have done so much that nearly every fact and item illustrative of their progress and status is classified and easily accessible. Our women, on the contrary, have had no advantage of interests peculiar and distinct and separable from those of men that have yet excited public attention and kindly recognition.

   Check for understanding: Which source would you use to show that African American leaders disagreed with the Exposition's picture of American progress, and which would you use to show that an African American woman spoke within the Exposition's programs? Ask students to name the feature (maker, date, place, audience or purpose) that best supports each choice.

4. Independent Practice15 minutes

   Students write a one-paragraph critique of the usefulness of two sources for one sub-question of their choice:

   • How did the Exposition's official publications describe its purpose?
   • Did African Americans take part in any official program of the Exposition?
   • What reasons did African American writers give for their absence from the exhibits?

   The paragraph must name at least three of the five features, quote each source once, and end with a sentence that says which source is more useful for that sub-question and why. Remind students that usefulness is not the same as agreement: a source can be very useful as evidence of a view the historian does not share.

5. Closure10 minutes

   Exit ticket: "The most useful source for the inquiry is ___ for the part of the question about ___, because its ___ (feature) ___. Its biggest limitation for this inquiry is ___." Collect and sort by source chosen; share one strong example of each.

   Background for a fair picture of the Exposition. Keep the pamphlet's argument and the documented record apart, and present both the fair's self-presentation and its exclusions. The official guide presents the fair as a display of "the progress which the world has made" (Source A). Ferdinand L. Barnett's chapter of The Reason Why reports that President Benjamin Harrison named no African American to the National Commission, that Hale G. Parker of Missouri was later named only as an alternate commissioner, that no Black woman sat on the Board of Lady Managers proper, and that the Exposition set aside August 25, 1893, as "Colored People's Day," which Barnett calls "the refinement of irony." He also notes that Haiti chose Frederick Douglass as its commissioner at the fair, so the Haitian pavilion in Source A, paragraph 3, was the one place Douglass held an official role. African American women also spoke at the official congresses: the volume that prints Williams's address includes remarks by Anna J. Cooper, Fannie Jackson Coppin, Hallie Q. Brown and Sarah J. Early. Two facts to correct if students repeat them: the guide's title page lists the closing date as October 26, but the fair stayed open until October 30, 1893; and the preface's history is its own, since the first recorded Africans in English Virginia arrived at Point Comfort in 1619, and the 1620 Plymouth settlers are usually called Pilgrims.

   Teacher notes. The sources use the terms of their time: "colored people" appears in Sources B-E, and the full pamphlet also uses "Negro." These were the usual respectful terms of the 1890s, and the African American makers of these sources used them themselves. Students should quote them exactly and use "African American" or "Black American" in their own writing. Source C refers to slavery and its lasting effects. Later pages of Douglass's chapter, not printed here, discuss lynching, and Ida B. Wells's chapter "Lynch Law" in the same pamphlet describes mob killings of Black Americans in direct and painful detail. Preview the full pamphlet before assigning any more of it, present this history plainly and with care, and use document analysis only, never role-play. Source E, for homework, quotes the words of prejudiced bank directors in order to criticize them. Keep the critique on usefulness: students do not need to agree or disagree with any maker, and the rubrics score reasoning about the sources, not a position. Source E is printed below.

   1This general failure of the American people to know the new generation of colored people, and to recognize this important change in them, is the cause of more injustice to our women than can well be estimated. Further progress is everywhere seriously hindered by this ignoring of their improvement.

   2Our exclusion from the benefits of the fair play sentiment of the country is little less than a crime against the ambitions and aspirations of a whole race of women. The American people are but repeating the common folly of history in thus attempting to repress the yearnings of progressive humanity.

   3In the item of employment colored women bear a distressing burden of mean and unreasonable discrimination. [...]

   4Not long ago I presented the case of a bright young woman to a well-known bank president of Chicago, who was in need of a thoroughly competent stenographer and typewriter. The president was fully satisfied with the young woman as exceptionally qualified for the position, and manifested much pleasure in commending her to the directors for appointment, and at the same time disclaimed that there could be any opposition on account of the slight tinge of African blood that identified her as a colored woman. Yet, when the matter was brought before the directors for action, these mighty men of money and business, these men whose prominence in all the great interests of the city would seem to lift them above all narrowness and foolishness, scented the African taint, and at once bravely came to the rescue of the bank and of society by dashing the hopes of this capable yet helpless young woman. No other question but that of color determined the action of these men, many of whom are probably foremost members of the humane society and heavy contributors to foreign missions and church extension work.

Differentiation Strategies

Assessment Guidance

1. Question 1 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   A historian writes that a source is "very useful for this inquiry." Under D2.His.11.9-12, what else must a good critique state?

   AThat it agrees with the other sources BWhich part of the question it can answer CThat an expert wrote it, not an amateur DThat the source is entirely free of bias

2. Question 2 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   According to Source A, paragraph 1, what is "an absolute necessity" for a visitor who has a real purpose at the Exposition?

   AHiring a guide for the day BBuying the guide's hand book CVisiting the foreign section DCarefully studying the map

3. Question 3 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   According to Source A, paragraph 2, what did the World's Congress Auxiliary aim to portray, beyond the exhibits of material progress?

   AAchievements of the new age in many fields BThe full history of Columbus's four voyages CThe farm products of each American state DThe cost of building the grounds

4. Question 4 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Why does the preface (Source B, paragraph 3) say Black Americans landed "at Jamestown, Virginia in 1619 in a slave ship, before the Puritans, who landed at Plymouth in 1620"?

   ATo give the exact date the Exposition opened BTo show the pamphlet was printed in Virginia CTo show Black Americans were there from the start DTo argue that the Puritans owned the first slave ship

5. Question 5 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   In Source B, paragraph 4, the makers ask whether Black Americans are "so dull and stupid as to feel no interest in this great event?" What is the best explanation of this question?

   AThe makers believed the charge was true BThe makers were quoting the Official Guide CIt was a question taken from the census DIt answers a charge before readers make it

6. Question 6 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   The closing note of Source B regrets that a picture of "the Capital Savings Bank, a flourishing institution conducted by the colored people of Washington, D. C." was left out (paragraph 7). What does this suggest about the makers' purpose?

   AThey wanted to raise money to help the bank BThey meant to display Black business success CThey were employees of the bank's directors DThey planned an exhibit inside the Exposition

7. Question 7 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   In Source C, paragraph 1, what does Douglass hope "this brief story" of successes and failures will do?

   APersuade Congress to close the Exposition early BRaise money for a separate exhibit at the fair CAnswer the charge that his people did not care DExplain the plans of the Exposition's builders

8. Question 8 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Douglass writes that "It is always more agreeable to speak well of one's country and its institutions than to speak otherwise" (Source C, paragraph 2). What does this sentence suggest about his audience?

   AHe knows visitors may not welcome his criticism BHe is writing mainly for formerly enslaved people CHe expects Congress to read the pamphlet first DHe is answering a letter from Source A's compiler

9. Question 9 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   According to Source C, paragraph 5, what is Douglass's answer to the question of why Black Americans are excluded from the Exposition?

   AThe cost of building exhibits BSlavery and its lasting spirit CA lack of interest in the fair DThe distance from the South

10. Question 10 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Williams says that "separate facts and figures relative to colored women are not easily obtainable" (Source D, paragraph 5). How does this statement matter for the inquiry?

    AIt proves that the Exposition kept no records BIt shows she relied on census tables in her talk CIt means her address should simply be ignored DIt warns that records on Black women were thin

11. Question 11 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    In Source D, paragraph 1, what does Williams treat as "a most noteworthy evidence" that Black women had made an impression on American life?

    AThat the congress made room for their status BThat Black women had built their own pavilion CThat the official guidebook printed her name DThat Congress had paid for her travel to Chicago

12. Question 12 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Fannie Barrier Williams spoke in May 1893, but Source D was printed in 1894 in a volume "for popular circulation." Which question does this raise about its usefulness?

    AWhether she really lived in Illinois then BWhether the congress was ever held at all CWhether the printed text is what she said DWhether the Exposition opened in that year

13. Question 13 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    The Exposition opened on May 1, 1893. How many days later was the closing note of Source B dated (August 30, 1893)?

    A120 days B122 days C90 days D121 days

14. Question 14 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    In Source E, paragraph 4, what is the main purpose of Williams's story about the bank?

    ATo praise the bank president for his fairness BTo show that color alone cost a woman a job CTo explain how banks hired workers in 1893 DTo argue that the directors broke a law

15. Question 15 of 20 · Short Answer

    Critique the usefulness of Source C for the inquiry, using its maker and its purpose. Give one strength and one limitation.

    Show model answer

16. Question 16 of 20 · Short Answer

    Sources B and C were made during the fair. Explain one way that being made during the event makes them more useful for the inquiry, and one way it may limit them.

    Show model answer

17. Question 17 of 20 · Short Answer

    All five sources were made in Chicago. Explain why place of origin alone does not settle their usefulness for the inquiry. Use two sources.

    Show model answer

18. Question 18 of 20 · Short Answer

    Compare the intended audiences of Source B and Source D, and explain how each audience shaped what the maker said.

    Show model answer

19. Question 19 of 20 · Short Answer

    A student wants to know how many African Americans visited the Exposition. Which source is most useful for this new sub-question, and why might none of the five be very useful?

    Show model answer

20. Question 20 of 20 · Short Answer

    Choose the two sources you would use together to answer the whole inquiry, and defend your choice by explaining what each adds that the other lacks.

    Show model answer

These standards connect to D2.His.11.9-12: prerequisites to review first, parallel standards at the same level, and next steps that build on it.

Standard text: National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS), The College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards: Guidance for Enhancing the Rigor of K-12 Civics, Economics, Geography, and History (Silver Spring, MD: NCSS, 2013). NCSS was not involved in the production of this lesson and does not endorse it.