For this assignment, you need to visit the National Archives Experience (http://digitalvaults.org/). Historians typically use two types of materials, secondary source, and primary source documents. Secondary sources are typically books and articles written on a particular historical event, well after the fact. Primary source documents are usually generated by first-hand participants. Good historians rely heavily on original materials created at the time of the event. For this reason, historians spend a good deal of time at the archives. There are many types of archives, but by far, the largest in the United States, is the National Archives in Washington, D.C.
The National Archives contains more than 10 billion documents, and they have collected over 1,200 of those in the National Archives Experience. After you have opened the above link, click on “continue” in the bottom right corner. This will take you to the Experience site. Here, you can select “Fort Wagner”, and collect documents relevant to that aspect of history.
Once you have collected your documents, you must use them as evidence for writing a 3-5 page essay. Naturally, you will need some other information, and you can gather that through your textbook, the internet, or other books and articles.
Your paper must be double-spaced (Times New Roman, font size 12), and include a cover page with your name, course number and course title, instructor’s name, and date. Your paper should include a thesis statement, and a narrative and conclusion that defends that argument. You must have at least three full pages of text, not including your cover page and bibliography.
