Preparing for your A Level exams
Paper 3: A Level sample answer with comments
Section A
These questions require you to analyse and evaluate source material with respect to its historical context.
For these questions remember to:
• look at the evidence given in the source and consider how the source could be used in differing ways to provide historical
understanding
• use your knowledge of the historical context to discuss any limitations the source may have
• use your historical understanding to evaluate the source, considering how much weight you would give to its argument
• come to a judgement on the overall value of the source in respect to the question.
Study Source 2 in Chapter 4 (page 92) before you answer this question.
Assess the value of the source for revealing the impact of the civil rights cases of 1883 on black Americans, and the attitudes of black
Americans to those cases. Explain your answer, using the source, the information given about its origin and your own knowledge
about its historical context. (20 marks)
Average student response
The extract has value to historians writing about the impact of the civil rights cases of 1883 on
black Americans and black American reaction to those cases. The extract is very critical of the
US Supreme Court decision to declare the 1875 Civil Rights Act unconstitutional. This is clear
in the title of the article where Bishop Turner uses strong language to show his anger at the
Supreme Court decision. The source itself follows in the use of very strong language, accusing
the US Supreme Court of allowing racial discrimination against black Americans. It says that the
Court decision would anger both black and white Americans as the decision goes against racial
equality. The author, black American bishop Turner, claims that most American people, both
black and white, were ignorant of the real meaning and significance of the civil rights cases, and
the decisions they made on civil rights. So I can infer that their attitude to the decision wouldn’t
be very strong. It is Bishop Turner that wants to make them firm up their attitude. He claims that
most Americans are unaware of the ‘cruel, disgraceful and inhuman condition of things affecting
the colored race’. He claims that the laws of the USA have a brutal and degrading effect on the
lives of black Americans. He even refers to the USA as a savage country. He believed that all
the Jim Crow Laws in the USA, which brought about segregation of the black and white races,
were due to the Supreme Court decision of 1883. It says the decision allows Jim Crow Laws
to be implemented, which takes away the civil rights of black Americans. It also says, without
naming them specifically, that the Supreme Court decision denies black Americans their civil
rights as given to them under the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments of the US
Constitution. From my own knowledge, I know that during the period of Reconstruction, in
the years 1865–77, black Americans were given the same civil rights as all other Americans.
Slavery was abolished in 1865. In 1868, black Americans, along with other Americans, received
equal protection of the law. Finally, in 1870, they received the right to vote. To back up these
newly acquired rights, the Civil Rights Act of 1875 ensured equality of treatment for both black
and white Americans in the use of public facilities. All these points help explain why the source
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The opening paragraph is
linked to the issues in the
question, though it doesn’t
tease out the differences
between impact and
attitudes sufficiently clearly.
It refers to the issue of
value to historians but does
not differentiate between
what the source reveals
about the reaction to the
US Supreme Court
decisions and how the
source enable someone to
understand the nature of
the reaction to these
decisions. However, the
answer is able to refer
directly to the source
material and selects and
summarises information from
the source. Information
taken from the source is
limited in the sense that it
is used to make
undeveloped inferences
relevant to the question,
but without providing links
between the source
material extracted and the
precise reasons why this
source material may be
valuable.
Preparing for your exams
by Bishop Turner would be of value to historians writing about the impact of the Civil Rights
cases of 1883 on race relations.
Clearly the civil rights cases of 1883 and their impact are important for a number of reasons.
The source is valuable because it is written in 1893, ten years after the cases, by a leading black
American clergyman, a bishop from Atlanta, Georgia. The source is a personal attack on the
civil rights cases, and their impact, and the fact that Bishop Turner had researched, compiled
and published the article shows the impact of the cases on black Americans and of their
attitudes to the cases. Bishop Turner believes that all of the Jim Crow Laws, which introduced
legal segregation from 1883 to when the article was published, in 1893, were the result of that
decision.
The source material provides lots of information about different reasons for the black American
attitudes to the civil rights cases. Bishop Turner uses strong language to support and sustain
his case against the Supreme Court decisions. From my own knowledge, I know that by
1893 the impact of the civil rights cases was that Jim Crow Laws had begun to be introduced
in many southern states. These laws introduced legal racial segregation and denied many
black Americans the right to vote. Bishop Turner’s article of 1893 was as much against these
developments as the civil rights cases themselves.
The concluding paragraph implies a link to the question by referring to the attitude of black
Americans to the US Supreme Court decisions. It also makes reference to why they had
such an impact on the lives of black Americans. The paragraph refers back to the issue of
value by making general comments about the value of the extract. This is supported by
accurate own knowledge, which reinforces the value of the source by linking the timing of the
speech to the civil rights cases of 1883.
This section develops the
information contained in the
opening paragraph through
referring to the provenance
of the source. The
paragraph is linked to the
‘value’ aspect of the
question because it refers
directly to the value of the
date of writing and to the
authorship of the source,
which states that the
author, a black American
bishop, researched and
published the article on his
own. There is some
repetition of the impact of
the Supreme Court case on
the subsequent introduction
of Jim Crow Laws, which
introduced legal
segregation in the USA
between black and white
Americans.
Verdict
This is an average answer because:
• it demonstrates some understanding of the source material but
does not provide sufficient analysis
• it provides some contextual evidence to the source material,
which helps expand and explain information from the extract
• it does mention the utility of the extract, but mainly through
noting some aspects of the provenance of the extract,
including some brief references to the authorship.
Use the feedback on this answer to rewrite it, making as many
improvements as you can.
177
Preparing for your exams
Paper 3: A Level sample answer with comments
Section A
These questions require you to analyse and evaluate source material with respect to its historical context.
For these questions remember to:
• look at the evidence given in the source and consider how the source could be used in differing ways to provide historical
understanding
• use your knowledge of the historical context to discuss any limitations the source may have
• use your historical understanding to evaluate the source, considering how much weight you would give to its argument
• come to a judgement on the overall value of the source in respect to the question.
Study Source 2 in Chapter 4 (page 92) before you answer this question.
Assess the value of the source for revealing the impact of the civil rights cases of 1883 on black Americans and the attitudes of black
Americans to those cases.
Explain your answer, using the source, the information given about its origin and your own knowledge about its historical context.
(20 marks)
Strong student response
The source by Bishop Turner is of considerable value in revealing the impact on black
Americans of the decisions made in the civil rights cases of 1883 and their attitude to these
cases. It makes reference to the cases in general terms, and makes direct reference to the impact
of the Supreme Court decision on black civil rights and so to the impact this had on black
Americans. It claims that the Supreme Court action in the civil rights cases had compromised
the three Civil War Amendments of the US Constitution, which had granted black Americans
equal civil rights with other Americans. The Thirteenth Amendment, passed in 1865, abolished
slavery, the Fourteenth Amendment, passed in 1868, granted all Americans equal protection of
the law, and the Fifteenth Amendment, passed in 1870, granted black Americans the right to
vote.
The source’s value is reinforced by the fact that it has been written by a prominent black
American, a bishop from Atlanta, Georgia, one of the largest cities in the South. The attribution
of the source states that the information contained within it was compiled by the Bishop, who
then decided to publish his findings in an article, published in 1893. The publication date was
ten years after the US Supreme Court decision in the civil rights cases. This gave Bishop Turner
the opportunity to place the impact of these cases in a broader historical perspective. In doing
so, he links the Supreme Court decision of 1883 to the imposition of Jim Crow Laws in the
southern states. It also gave him time to reflect on the impact the Jim Crow Laws had on black
Americans. These laws introduced legal racial segregation, thus denying black Americans equal
civil rights. In 1887, the state of Florida introduced legal segregation in railway travel. In 1890,
This section places the value of the extract in broader historical context through assessment
of the provenance of the extract. It displays very sound, detailed own knowledge and makes
direct reference to the source’s value to the historian writing on the reaction of a prominent
black American to the impact of the civil rights cases of 1883 from the perspective of a
decade later, in 1893, and how the cases enabled southern state governments to introduce
Jim Crow Laws, thereby making direct reference to explaining why the source is of value in
understanding the reaction of black Americans
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A very strong opening,
which is sharply focused on
the specific question and
indicates a top-level
response. There is some
thorough deployment of
own knowledge, which
places the information in
the extract in broader
historical context and
makes clear links between
the issue of black American
equality, its importance in
US society and the timing
of the speech following a
major incident which
highlighted the need to
address the issue, thereby
both revealing the impact
of the civil rights cases on
black Americans and their
attitudes to the US
Supreme Court decisions.
Preparing for your exams
the state of Mississippi amended its state constitution to include clauses making it very difficult
for black Americans to register to vote, thereby denying black Americans their civil rights under
the Fifteenth Amendment of the US Constitution. The whole source, and the language used by
Bishop Turner, indicates the strength of attitudes of black Americans to those cases. Although he
was just one black man, he was the mouthpiece of them all
However, the source has limitations. It does not provide information on the immediate black
American reaction in 1883. The language of the source, both in its title and in its content,
contains very strong language which reflects Bishop Turner’s anger but limits the source’s value
in terms of being a balanced, logical response to the civil rights cases of 1883. The attribution
regards the Supreme Court decision as ‘the most cruel and inhuman verdict against a loyal
people in the history of the world’. Within the body of the source, this view is again mentioned
when Bishop Turner states: ‘The world has never seen such barbarous laws entailed upon a free
people as have grown out of the decision of the United States Supreme Court, issued October 15,
1883. For that decision now sustains all the unjust discriminations, proscriptions and robberies
perpetrated by public carriers upon millions of the nation’s most loyal defenders.’ In addition,
Bishop Turner makes some wild claims which he fails to substantiate, such as the statement that
the Supreme Court decision has resulted in thousands of deaths.
The nature of the source, its content, authorship and the date it was written make it of
considerable value to the historian in revealing an understanding of the black American reaction
to the US Supreme Court civil rights cases of 1883. It focuses on an important event in relation
to the broader historical context of the introduction of Jim Crow Laws, which created legal racial
segregation in the southern states. However, it deals with the views of one person, ten years
after the event. The source also contains considerable intemperate language and phrases, which
offers clear evidence of anger against the cases, but is limited in its provision of detailed factual
evidence to reveal the impact of the decision on black American civil rights.
The answer refers directly
to the provenance of the
source and also uses own
knowledge to place it in
the wider context of the
impact of the civil rights
cases of 1883 on black
Americans, particularly in
the southern states, and
on their attitudes to the
decisions
Verdict
This is a strong answer because:
• it has sharp focus on the specific question dealing with both
parts of the question
• it makes use of evidence in the source and in the introduction
to the source
• it deploys appropriate own knowledge accurately and
effectively.
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