Using Primary
Sources to
Teach
Literature
A Presentation by
Dr. Therese Rizzo
therese.rizzo@uncp.edu
910-522-5802
How Can Primary Sources Change
the Way We Read Fiction?
The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne


A novel that uses Puritanism and the seventeenth
century as a frame to critique nineteenth-century
hypocrisy and bigotry.
How Can Primary Sources Help Us Understand this
Text?

Understanding the Seventeenth Century:




Excerpts from Of Plymouth Plantation, William
Bradford
“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” John
Edwards
Excerpts from The Salem Witch Trials Manuscripts
Excerpts from The Wonders of the Invisible World,
Cotton Mather
How Can Primary Sources
Change the Way We Read
Fiction?
The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne


A novel that uses Puritanism and the seventeenth century
as a frame to critique nineteenth-century hypocrisy and
bigotry.
How Can Primary Sources Help Us Understand this
Text?

Understanding the Nineteenth Century:





Excerpts from Fanny Fern Newspaper Articles
Articles from Godey’s Lady’s Magazines
Excerpts from Sarah Josepha Hale’s Woman’s Record; or
Sketches of all Distinguished Women
Excerpts from William Sprague’s Letters on Practical Subjects to a
Daughter
Excerpts from Nineteenth-Century Conduct Manuals
Students Become Part of the Period
When they Analyze the Period
Lessons Using Primary Sources
Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe
 Primary Sources:




Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet
Jacobs
12 Years a Slave, Solomon Northup
The Heroic Slave, Frederick Douglass
The Southern Negro As He Is, George
Stetson
Lessons Using Primary Sources
 “Life
in the Iron Mills,” Rebecca Harding
Davis


Loom and Spindle; or, Life among the Early
Mill Girls, Harriet Hanson Robinson
The Lowell Offering: A Repository of Original
Articles on Various Subjects, Written by
Factory Operatives
Primary Sources Improve
Student Writing
 Original: “In the nineteenth century,
women and the home were considered
one and the same, which is shown in
Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The narrator’s
reference to Mrs. Bird’s curiosity in affairs
of state correlates to her curiosity in affairs
of the home by referencing the state with
the home. She seems to have no business
worrying about neither the house of state
nor the house of Bird.”
Primary Sources Improve
Student Writing

With Primary Sources: “Nineteenth-century sources show that
women and the home were often considered one and the same,
an idea which is reflected in Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The narrator’s
reference to Mrs. Bird’s curiosity in affairs of state correlates to her
curiosity in affairs of the home by connecting the state with the
home. She seems to have no business worrying about either the
house of state nor the house of Bird, which contradicts the popular
notion of women’s roles shown in Johnson’s views on etiquette.
Johnson’s etiquette manual says that a husband should, “Consult
your wife also in your business affairs. A woman's intuitions often
exceed a man's reasoning powers, and enable her to come to
conclusions which, if followed, will often lead the way to fortune”
(Husbands XI). Johnson clearly merits women’s intellect, and Stowe
similarly shows her reader that women should be consulted by
critiquing Mr. Bird’s reluctance to discuss these affairs with Mrs. Bird,
which takes away her power in the home.”
Primary Sources Improve
Student Writing
Original: “With Eva and Harry as
examples of childlike perfection, the novel
insinuates that correct mothering and
training of children can directly influence
the development of a perfected future
America, free of the contamination of
slavery.”
Primary Sources Improve
Student Writing
With Primary Sources: “With Eva and Harry as examples of childlike
perfection, the novel insinuates that correct mothering and training of
children can directly influence the development of a perfected future
America, free of the contamination of slavery. The concept of
mothering is presented as the dutiful responsibility of the nineteenth
century woman; the idea that children are impressionable and
unrestrained demonstrates a child’s need for the agency of an adult
to actively facilitate his/her development and growth. Mrs. G.H.
Gutterson expresses the importance of mothering in The American
Missionary (1865). She states, “But what about the mothering of
nations? Long ago God gave the work to Eve when He put the two
sons on her knee and said Mother these children; this is your
salvation…He says ‘Mother the world.’ Why mother the world?
Because you can” (Gutterson 24). Gutterson views mothering as a
charge from God, calling it Eve’s salvation. Therefore, from Gutterson’s
perspective, in order to find redemption and deliverance from evil, a
woman is instructed to mother her children devotedly. Gutterson’s
description of Eve’s charge to mother her sons can be paralleled with
the society of slavery in the 1800s.”
Links for Your NineteenthCentury Adventures













http://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/moagrp/
http://moa.library.cornell.edu
http://www.accessible-archives.com/collections/godeys-ladys-book/
http://www1.assumption.edu/users/lknoles/conduct.html
http://www1.assumption.edu/users/lknoles/wharton/etiquettemanuals.h
tml
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/browse/updatedList.html
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/35123?msg=welcome_stranger
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/eyebright/etiquette/etiquette.ht
ml
http://public.wsu.edu/~amerstu/19th/19th.html
http://libguides.bgsu.edu/content.php?pid=58961&sid=449734
http://www.nypl.org/about/locations/schomburg/digital-schomburg
http://www.merrycoz.org/voices/NOVELS.HTM
http://www.eldritchpress.org/nh/nhcrit.html