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Home/History/Pick one primary source from the Valley of the Shadow database and apply your process of source criticism. In what research context would this source be helpful and appropriate, and what kind of use would render it a poor or inappropriate source?

Pick one primary source from the Valley of the Shadow database and apply your process of source criticism. In what research context would this source be helpful and appropriate, and what kind of use would render it a poor or inappropriate source?

Prior to exploiting resources in one’s research work, it is crucial to undertake the task of assessing their credibility and usefulness. The process of evaluation requires a thorough review and analysis of the work. Taking a primary source from the Valley of the Shadow database will allow demonstrating the process of verifying its reliability and authority, as well as presuming whether it may be regarded as an objective one.

The source selected with the purpose of applying the process of criticism is the Staunton Vindicator newspaper published on January 11, 1861. The questions that I would ask about the issue are the following:

  1. Why does the Vindicator insist so strongly on taking action concerning the State Convention as soon as possible?
  2. How has the paper found out about the free blacks living in the town?
  3. Why does the Vindicator assume that since the negroes are not registered, they have “no business” in Staunton?
  4. On what basis does the Vindicator not agree with the Spectator’s declaration that most of Augusta voters do not support the plan to hold a State Convention?
  5. Why is the Vindicator convinced that the federal government cannot keep controlling the Union by means of coercion?

An important aspect of assessing sources is finding out about their authors. Furthermore, it is crucial to evaluate the authors’ credibility and the level of their awareness of the issues they discuss. In the case of the current source, which is a newspaper issue, it is not possible to identify the authorship since the newspaper was published over a century and a half ago. However, it is possible to assume that the journalists working for the paper at the time were true professionals and reflected the events happening in the town and the state correctly. If I interpreted the level of authority incorrectly, I might face the problem of unreliable or false data used in my research paper.

The selected source might be helpful and appropriate in a range of research contexts. These include the identification of the initial causes of the Civil War, the general mood in the State of Virginia in the pre-war period, and the attitude of Staunton’s people toward slaves and their rights. However, the most plausible exploitation of the source seems to be the explanation of the problem of states’ rights and the issue of slavery as closely associated with it. Many crucial questions are raised in the newspaper issue, and their thorough analysis may help in enriching the knowledge of significant aspects relating to the initiation of the war and the South’s reaction to it.

The newspaper claims to provide verifiable evidence and even questions the data provided by another paper, Spectator, on the issue of the Convention. It looks like the newspaper issue may be considered as an objective source. When using any kind of source, a researcher should be especially cautious about the reliability of the data cited. In this particular case, taking some pieces of information out of context could render the resource a poor or inappropriate one.

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Academic.Tips. (2022) 'Pick one primary source from the Valley of the Shadow database and apply your process of source criticism. In what research context would this source be helpful and appropriate, and what kind of use would render it a poor or inappropriate source'. 3 February.

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Academic.Tips. (2022, February 3). Pick one primary source from the Valley of the Shadow database and apply your process of source criticism. In what research context would this source be helpful and appropriate, and what kind of use would render it a poor or inappropriate source? https://academic.tips/question/pick-one-primary-source-from-the-valley-of-the-shadow-database-and-apply-your-process-of-source-criticism-in-what-research-context-would-this-source-be-helpful-and-appropriate-and-what-kind-of-use-w/

References

Academic.Tips. 2022. "Pick one primary source from the Valley of the Shadow database and apply your process of source criticism. In what research context would this source be helpful and appropriate, and what kind of use would render it a poor or inappropriate source?" February 3, 2022. https://academic.tips/question/pick-one-primary-source-from-the-valley-of-the-shadow-database-and-apply-your-process-of-source-criticism-in-what-research-context-would-this-source-be-helpful-and-appropriate-and-what-kind-of-use-w/.

1. Academic.Tips. "Pick one primary source from the Valley of the Shadow database and apply your process of source criticism. In what research context would this source be helpful and appropriate, and what kind of use would render it a poor or inappropriate source?" February 3, 2022. https://academic.tips/question/pick-one-primary-source-from-the-valley-of-the-shadow-database-and-apply-your-process-of-source-criticism-in-what-research-context-would-this-source-be-helpful-and-appropriate-and-what-kind-of-use-w/.


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Academic.Tips. "Pick one primary source from the Valley of the Shadow database and apply your process of source criticism. In what research context would this source be helpful and appropriate, and what kind of use would render it a poor or inappropriate source?" February 3, 2022. https://academic.tips/question/pick-one-primary-source-from-the-valley-of-the-shadow-database-and-apply-your-process-of-source-criticism-in-what-research-context-would-this-source-be-helpful-and-appropriate-and-what-kind-of-use-w/.

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"Pick one primary source from the Valley of the Shadow database and apply your process of source criticism. In what research context would this source be helpful and appropriate, and what kind of use would render it a poor or inappropriate source?" Academic.Tips, 3 Feb. 2022, academic.tips/question/pick-one-primary-source-from-the-valley-of-the-shadow-database-and-apply-your-process-of-source-criticism-in-what-research-context-would-this-source-be-helpful-and-appropriate-and-what-kind-of-use-w/.

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Do some background reading on the causes of the American Civil War. Pick one historical factor that influenced the context and causation of the war and write a paragraph describing and emphasizing its role in particular leading up to the war. Which one do you think played a bigger role? Was its importance overstated? Was there interplay between the two emphasized factors?
The Staunton Vindicator newspaper, available on the Valley of the Shadow site, was a prosecession, proslavery Southern newspaper. Pull out and post one selection that could be used to support an argument that the maintenance of slavery was major motivation and one selection that emphasizes states' rights as the major cause.
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