Evaluating Evidence:  Written Documents and First-Person Accounts

What "story" does my source tell me about my topic?

Now that I have collected evidence from the trial depositions, I want to evaluate the sources.  When I evaluate, I use the evidence in the documents,  connect it to the background knowledge about the event that I’ve already learned, and use them to create my interpretation of the event. 

My evaluation of the Preston deposition:

  • Preston puts the Boston Massacre in the larger context of British soldier/townspeople relations, and stresses the need of the soldiers to defend themselves in this hostile place.  He writes about the events in the weeks leading up to the Boston Massacre, and focuses on the danger the British soldiers felt that they were in from the people of Boston. Preston says that the incident at the ropewalks (2 weeks before the massacre) was very insulting to the soldiers and resulted in a fight. He also says that the townspeople were daring the soldiers to fire into the crowd right before the massacre, and that the crowd called the soldiers cowards for not firing.  He says that the crowd hit the soldiers with sticks and snowballs and knocked one soldier down.  After reading this account, it seemed inevitable that the soldiers would shoot because they needed to defend themselves.    

My evaluation of the John Wilme deposition:

  • The soldiers’ state of mind seems really important in John Wilme’s deposition, which helps fill in what the British soldiers were thinking about the people of Boston in the days before the Boston Massacre.  According to Wilme, the soldier he spoke with expected to shoot into a crowd of townspeople, and even seemed to be looking forward to this.   If this was the attitude of a typical soldier, it makes sense that the British soldiers were looking for any opportunity to fight, and even kill, the people of Boston.
My evaluation of the Jeffrey Richardson deposition:
  • The fight at the ropeworks was important to many of the people giving depositions at the trial.  In Richardson’s account, the soldiers are shown to be aggressors, coming to the ropeworks with clubs and threatening the workers without any provocation.   At the end of this deposition, I wonder, why did the soldiers come to attack the ropeworkers?  I need to find out more about the ropeworks and why the soldiers and workers are fighting for this to make sense to me.
My evaluation of the John Gray deposition: 
  • From reading the deposition, it becomes clear that John Gray was the owner of the ropeworks.  Gray seems to want to be very ‘neutral’ in his account of what happened at the ropeworks and is very careful to not be too negative against the British soldiers.  Gray does not seem to have witnessed the events at the ropeworks, and his deposition is mainly a recounting the discussion he had later, with the Colonel Dalrymple.  Mr. Gray explains that the Colonel felt that the ropeworkers were to blame for the event because they rudely told the soldiers to  clean their outhouse. This insult resulted in a fight between the soldiers and the ropeworkers a few hours later.  As a result of the argument, Mr. Gray  told Col. Dalrymple that he had fired the ropeworkers that caused the insult and argument. Col. Dalrymple said that he would keep the soldiers away from the ropeworks.  Gray is careful to point out that he and Col. Dalrymple did everything they could to keep these antagonists away from each other.
 My evaluation of the Ebenezer Bridgham deposition:
  • This deposition is about the Boston Massacre itself.  Bridgham appears to have been near the site of the Boston Massacre, but was not part of the crowd.  He describes the crowd as small—around 12 people—but they were belligerent.  The crowd gathered, surrounded the soldiers and walked by them while hitting their guns with sticks. The crowd also taunted the soldiers—daring them to fire into the crowd.  In this account, the crowd seemed to be nearly attacking the soldiers and it seems almost reasonable that the soldiers fired into the threatening crowd.
 

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Take Action: 
Evaluate your Evidence 

You've collected data from your first-person documents,  now add meaning to them with your evaluation.  A good evaluation:

  • is based on the facts, your understanding and your experience 
  • is tied to evidence in the document
  • includes some reading ‘between the lines’

 

Terry's Tips

Help students recognize the value of biased sources

Support students in evaluating sources by having them recognize potential bias and corrororate the facts in a document.  A biased source can still disclose valuable and relevant information that helps with a critical question!