Pre-AP Activities Guide
The American Revolution
Teacher’s Guide
Analyzing Primary Sources
OVERVIEW
Students will learn to analyze primary source documents by using the APPARTS method.
Purpose, point of view, and the influence of primary source documents from the American
Revolution will be examined.
PLANNING
Time Suggested
One 45-minute class period
Materials
Analyzing Primary Sources handouts
OBJECTIVES
•
Students will learn to evaluate primary sources by examining source information, purpose,
audience, main idea, and the significance of the document.
•
Students will understand the importance of primary source documents as tools for historical
interpretation.
PROCEDURE
1. Start by asking students what the difference is between primary and secondary sources. They
should remember that primary sources are written at or about the time of an event, while
secondary sources are written much later than the event itself. Ask the class for examples of
primary and secondary sources. Students should indicate that primary sources are diaries,
speeches, and political cartoons, while secondary sources are often textbooks, encyclopedia
entries, and the like.
2. Pass out the Analyzing Primary Sources handouts. Review with students the elements of
the APPARTS method in the Learn the Skill section. Remind students to look for answers in
the document itself, as well as any background information provided with the document.
Go over any questions students may have.
3. Next, walk students through the Practice the Skill section. Have a volunteer read the excerpt
from Patrick Henry’s speech aloud. As a class, discuss the answers to the questions in the
call-out boxes that relate to the speech (see answer key). Discuss with the class how this
speech helps further their understanding of the movement for independence.
4. Lastly, ask students to read the excerpt from the Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of
taking up Arms independently and complete the APPARTS chart for the document. Discuss
with the class how this document furthers their understanding of the time period.
ENRICHMENT
Have students do research on their own to find a different primary source document from the
Revolutionary period. Have students complete an APPARTS chart on the document they located.
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Pre-AP Activities Guide
Name
Class
Date
Pre-AP Activities Guide
The American Revolution
Analyzing Primary Sources
LEARN THE SKILL
Any original record that was created at or about the time of an historical event is a primary source. Primary sources come in many forms,
such as letters, photos, newspaper articles, speeches, and more. They
serve as historical records not just of the event itself, but also of attitudes and opinions about the event.
One common way to analyze a primary source is known as the
APPARTS method. Try to identify these important details any time you
read a primary source document:
A
Author
Who is the author? What do you know about the
author?
P
Place & time
When and where was the source created?
P
Prior knowledge
What do you already know about this source or
this subject?
A
Audience
Who was the intended audience?
R
Reason
What was the purpose of the document?
T
The main idea
What is the source saying? What is the main idea?
S
Significance
Why is this source important?
PRACTICE THE SKILL
DIRECTIONS Read the excerpt below and analyze the
document by answering the questions.
Patrick Henry gave his famous “Give me liberty or give
me death” speech in March 1775, to the delegates of
the Virginia Convention. In it, he urges his fellow statesmen to prepare for war with Great Britain.
“. . . Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace—but there is
no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale
that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears
the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are
already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What
is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is
life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at
Who wrote this speech? When and
where was it given? Who was the
audience?
What do you already know about
Patrick Henry or the American
Revolution?
What was the purpose of this
speech? What is the speaker
saying?
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Pre-AP Activities Guide
Name
Class
Date
Pre-AP Activities Guide
Analyzing Primary Sources, continued
the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty
God! I know not what course others may take; but
as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”
Why is this speech important in
U.S. history?
APPLY THE SKILL
DIRECTIONS As you read the document below, consider the elements
of APPARTS.
The Second Continental Congress issued this declaration on July 6, 1775, as an explanation of their conflict
with Great Britain. At the time, many delegates still
hoped to reach a peaceful solution to the conflict.
Authored by Thomas Jefferson and Colonel John
Dickinson, this document set down many of the complaints colonists had regarding British rule.
Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking up Arms
We are reduced to the alternative of chusing [choosing] an unconditional
submission to the tyranny of irritated ministers, or resistance by force.
—The latter is our choice. —We have counted the cost of this contest,
and find nothing so dreadful as voluntary slavery. —Honour, justice, and
humanity, forbid us tamely to surrender that freedom which we received
from our gallant ancestors, and which our innocent posterity have a right
to receive from us. We cannot endure the infamy and guilt of resigning succeeding generations to that wretchedness which inevitably awaits
them, if we basely entail hereditary bondage upon them.
Our cause is just. Our union is perfect. Our internal resources are
great, and, if necessary, foreign assistance is undoubtedly attainable.
—We gratefully acknowledge, as signal instances of the Divine favour
towards us, that his Providence would not permit us to be called into
this severe controversy, until we were grown up to our present strength,
had been previously exercised in warlike operation, and possessed of the
means of defending ourselves. With hearts fortified with these animating reflections, we most solemnly, before God and the world, declare,
that, exerting the utmost energy of those powers, which our beneficient
Creator hath graciously bestowed upon us, the arms we have been compelled by our enemies to assume, we will, in defiance of every hazard,
with unabating firmness and perseverence, employ for the preservation
of our liberties; being with one mind resolved to die freemen rather
than to live slaves . . .
In our own native land, in defence of the freedom that is our birthright, and which we ever enjoyed till the late violation of it—for the
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Pre-AP Activities Guide
Name
Class
Date
Pre-AP Activities Guide
Analyzing Primary Sources, continued
protection of our property, acquired solely by the honest industry of
our fore-fathers and ourselves, against violence actually offered, we have
taken up arms. We shall lay them down when hostilities shall cease on
the part of the aggressors, and all danger of their being renewed shall be
removed, and not before.
DIRECTIONS Analyze the document above by completing the chart.
A
Author
P
Place & time
P
Prior knowledge
A
Audience
R
Reason
T
The main idea
S
Significance
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Pre-AP Activities Guide