Plagues, Witches, and War

Plagues, Witches, and War: The Worlds of Historical Fiction

research

primary sources

http://www.civilwarhome.com/essanfordor.htm http://www.vny.cuny.edu/riots.html http://chnm.gmu.edu/lostmuseum/lm/272/ http://www.civilwarhome.com/draftriots.htm http://ied.dippam.ac.uk/records The Historical Archive Assignment

According to the official definition provided by the United States Library of Congress, “Primary sources are the raw materials of history — original documents and objects which were created at the time under study. They are different from secondary sources, accounts or interpretations of events created by someone without firsthand experience.” Practically all authors of historical fiction rely on primary sources to provide details of setting, character, language, or event at some point in their writing.

For this assignment you will identify, describe, and discuss a primary historical source that is new to you and that you found either in an on-line archive or at a bricks-and-mortar archive in your geographical location. Once you have chosen your primary source, you will be asked to write a short and simple essay addressing questions such as the following: What is your primary source, and in what archive did you find it? How did you locate your primary source, and why did it catch your eye? What in particular interests you about it? Can you imagine a piece of historical fiction inspired by your primary source? If so, what would the story be, and how would your primary source figure into the narrative? You are encouraged to be as creative as you'd like with this assignment!

Identify and describe a primary historical source found either in an on-line archive or at a bricks-and-mortar archive in your location. Your written submission should be at least ten sentences long and include a link to the primary source. Once you have completed your assignment, you are encouraged to post it, along with any additional commentary you'd like to add, in the Assignments forum to share with your fellow students.

http://ied.dippam.ac.uk/records/26891

The Irish Emigration Database is an online resource. I am particularly interested in the letters from emigrants to their families back home. There are many letters to mothers but what interested me more were letters between brothers. Perhaps it is because I am one of five brothers and of Irish descent or because brothers are not as constrained in what they say to each other. One example letter between brothers is http://ied.dippam.ac.uk/records/26891.

I am concentrating on letters from New York Irish in the period leading up to the draft riots on 1863. These riots occurred soon after the Emancipation Proclamation. The Irish resented that they were going to be drafted but the rich could buy their way out of the draft for $300. In the course of the riots there were deplorable acts of racism. Issues of race and class are complex and I sense that there are multiple sides to the story and a wider range of personal morals and degrees of racial prejudice among the Irish than is indicated in the headlines.

I lived through the busing riots in Boston and watched primary school kids being pelted by rocks from Southy Irish. In Boston the Puerto Ricans discriminate against Dominicans. What is it in us that causes us to treat each other so poorly. How are huge class differences between the rich and poor redirected to conflict between different segments of the working class?