A.P. U.S. HISTORY
CHAPTER 19 ASSIGN.
USING APPARTS TO ANALYZE DOCUMENTS
To understand history or politics it is essential that you learn to critically examine significant
documents. APPARTS is an "easy to remember" acronym for the following:
AUTHOR
Who created the source? What do you know about the author? What is the author's
point of view?
PLACE AND TIME
Where and when was the source produced? How might this affect the meaning of the
source?
PRIOR KNOWLEDGE
Beyond information about the author and the context of its creation, what do you
know that would help you further understand the primary source? For example, do
you recognize any symbols and recall what they represent?
AUDIENCE
For whom was the source created and how might this affect the reliability of the
source?
REASON
Why was this source produced at the time it was produced?
THE MAIN IDEA
What main point is the source trying to convey? What is the central message of the
document?
SIGNIFICANCE
Why is this source important? What inferences can you draw from this document?
Ask yourself, "So what?" What should a student of history or politics take away from
the analysis of this document?
ASSIGNMENT:
For each of the attached documents outline information answering the questions
using APPARTS.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
DOCUMENT A
Source: The Gospel of Wealth by Andrew Carnegie (1889)
The problem of our age is the administration of wealth, so that the ties of brotherhood
may still bind together the rich and poor in harmonious relationship. The conditions of
human life have not only been changed, but revolutionized, within the past few hundred
years. In former days there was little difference between the dwelling, dress, food, and
environment of the chief and those of his retainers . . . . The contrast between the palace
of the millionaire and the cottage of the laborer with us today measures the change which
has come with civilization . . .
. . . We start, then, with a condition of affairs under which the best interests of the race
are promoted, but which inevitably gives wealth to the few. Thus far, accepting
conditions as they exist, the situation can be surveyed and pronounced good. The
question then arises-and, if the foregoing be correct, it is the only question with which we
have to deal-What is the proper mode of administering wealth after the laws upon which
civilization is founded have thrown it into the hands of the few? And it is of this great
question that I believe I offer the true solution. It will be understood that fortunes are here
spoken of, not moderate sums saved by many years of effort, the returns from which are
required for the comfortable maintenance and education of families. This is not wealth,
but only competence, which it should be the aim of all to acquire . . .
. . . This, then, is held to be the duty of the man of Wealth: First, to set an example of
modest, unostentatious living, shunning display or extravagance; to provide moderately
for the legitimate wants of those dependent upon him; and after doing so to consider all
surplus revenues which come to him simply as trust funds, which he is called upon to
administer, and strictly bound as a matter of duty to administer in the manner which, in
his judgment, is best calculated to produce the most beneficial result for the communitythe man of wealth thus becoming the sole agent and trustee for his poorer brethren,
bringing to their service his superior wisdom, experience, and ability to administer-doing
for them better than they would or could do for themselves.
DOCUMENT B
Source: The Autobiography of Mother Jones by Mary Harris Jones
Little girls and boys, barefooted, walked up and down between the endless rows of
spindles, reaching thin little hands into the machinery to repair snapped threads. They
crawled under machinery to oil it. They replaced spindles all day long, all day long; night
through, night through. Tiny babies of six years old with faces of sixty did an eight-hour
shift for ten cents a day. If they fell asleep, cold water was dashed in their faces; and the
voice of the manager yelled above the ceaseless racket and whir of the machines.
Toddling chaps of four years old were brought to the mills to "help" the older sister or
brother' of ten years but their labor was not paid.
The machines, built in the north, were low for the hands of little children.
At five-thirty in the morning, long lines of little grey children came out of the early dawn
into the factory, into the maddening noise, into the lint filled rooms. Outside the birds
sang and the blue sky shone. At the lunch half-hour, children would fall to sleep over
their lunch of cornbread and fat pork. They would lie on the bare floor and sleep. Sleep
was their recreation, their release, as play is to the free children. The boss would come
along and shake them awake. After the lunch period, the hour-in grind, the ceaseless
running up and down between the whirring spindles. Babies, tiny children!
DOCUMENT C
Immigration to the United States
Bureau of Census
1865
1866
1867
1868
1869
1870
1871
1872
1873
1874
1875
1876
1877
1878
1879
1880
1881
248,120
318,568
315,722
138,640
352,768
387,203
321,500
404,806
459,803
313,339
227,498
169,966
141,857
138,469
177,826
457,257
669,431
1882
1883
1884
1885
1886
1887
1888
1889
1890
1891
1892
1893
1894
1895
1896
1897
1898
788,992
603,322
518,592
395,346
334,203
490,109
546,889
444,427
455,302
560,319
579,663
439,730
285,631
258,536
343,267
230,832
229,299
DOCUMENT D
September 23, 1871
HARPER’S WEEKLY
NEW YORK
RENT
PAYER
NEW YORK CITY
TEASURY
LAW
TAX PAYER
JUSTICE
LIBERTY
THOMAS NAST
A Group of Vultures Waiting for the Storm to “Blow Over” – “Let us Prey”
DOCUMENT E
Source: The People's Party Platform, (1892)
“We meet in the midst of a nation brought to the verge of moral, political and material
ruin. Corruption dominates the ballot box, the Legislatures, the Congress, and touches
even the ermine of the bench. The people are demoralized; most of the States have been
compelled to isolate the voters at the polling places to prevent universal intimidation or
bribery. The newspapers are largely subsidized or muzzled, public opinion silenced,
business prostrated, our homes covered with mortgages, labor impoverished, and the land
concentrating in the hands of the capitalists. The urban workmen are denied the right of
organization for self-protection; imported pauperized labor beats down their wages; a
hireling standing army, unrecognized by our laws, is established to shoot them down,
and they are rapidly degenerating into European conditions . . . . From the same prolific
womb of governmental injustice we breed the two great classes, tramps and millionaires.
. . . .”
DOCUMENT F
This is a Senate: of the Monopolists, by
the Monopolists and for the Monopolists
Paper
Trust
Sugar
Trust
Standard
Oil Trust
Trust
Entrance for Monopolists
Copper
Trust
The Bosses of the Senate
Steel
Trust