AP U.S. History · Free-response skill

Use a document and judge its reliability

The move. Use a primary source as evidence for a claim, then explain how the author's situation, purpose or audience affects how reliable it is for that claim.

How to do it

  1. Start with what the document says, in your own words. Do not quote half the text; point to the one idea you will use.
  2. To use it as evidence, connect that idea to a claim about the period. Ask: what does this show about how people thought or acted at the time?
  3. Then source it. Look at who wrote it, when, for whom and why. For example, a planter's letter to a newspaper defending slavery in the 1850s was written to win readers over, and a diary was written for its author alone.
  4. Reliability depends on the question you are asking. A source can be good evidence for one question and weak evidence for another, so say which question your claim depends on.
  5. Tie your sourcing to the specific claim with a because sentence that names the feature of the source (its author, purpose, audience or moment) and what it does to the source's value.

Practice prompt Try it

Document (our summary, not a quotation). On July 6, 1863, months after the Emancipation Proclamation let Black men join the Union army, Frederick Douglass spoke at a mass meeting in Philadelphia called to promote the enlistment of Black soldiers. Douglass had escaped slavery in 1838 and become a leading abolitionist, and two of his sons had already enlisted. In the speech he urged Black men to enlist without waiting, and he argued that once a Black man had worn the uniform of the United States and fought for it, no power on earth could rightly deny that he had earned citizenship.

Read the document description. Then answer each part in two or three sentences.

  1. Give one claim about the Civil War that this document could be used to support, and say how the document supports it.
  2. Explain how Douglass's purpose at this meeting affects how far the document can be trusted as evidence of how most Black men in the North felt about enlisting.
  3. Give one event or trend from 1863 to 1865, other than this meeting, that shows how Black men responded to the chance to serve, and explain what it shows.

Write each part, then check yourself against the checklist. Nothing you type here is saved or graded.

Check yourself and see a model answer

Checklist

Our own checklist of what a full answer does, one line per point. Tick each one your response earns.

0 of 6 points

Model answer, annotated

(a) The document supports the claim that Black leaders saw service in the Union army as a path to citizenship. In the speech, Douglass told his listeners that once a Black man had worn the uniform and fought for the United States, no power could rightly deny that he had earned citizenship.

  • Point 1 A clear, accurate claim about the war: Black leaders linked service to citizenship.
  • Point 2 Cites the specific detail in the document, the uniform-and-citizenship argument, as the support for the claim.

(b) Douglass spoke at a meeting held to recruit Black soldiers, so his goal was to persuade men to enlist. Because of that purpose, the speech shows the arguments he hoped would convince his listeners, not a reliable report of how most Black men in the North felt; the fact that the meeting was needed suggests that many were still unsure about serving.

  • Point 3 States the purpose: recruiting and persuading.
  • Point 4 Explains the limit: a persuasive speech shows the case he made, not what most men felt.

(c) In July 1863 the 54th Massachusetts, a Black regiment, led the assault on Fort Wagner in South Carolina and lost many men. Their courage showed that Black soldiers were willing to fight and die for the Union, and it encouraged more Black men to enlist.

  • Point 5 A specific, dated event other than the meeting: the 54th Massachusetts at Fort Wagner.
  • Point 6 Says what it shows: willingness to fight, and a spur to more enlistment.