The Teacher as Historical Detective: Modeling a Scholarly Investigation. Before we can teach our students to do their own historical research - to become historical detectives - we have to model historical scholarship. Below is an example of how you would conduct such an investigation and then present it to your students.

Step 1: Select a topic. Our topic will be John Brown and his involvement in trying to abolish slavery. We have already learned about John Brown - the man, his involvement in the Potawaminee Massacre, and his attack at Harper's Ferry. Now it is time for me to conduct some of my own analysis by deciding if John Brown was a great man, or a failure.

Step 2: Select a thesis.  I have two choices:  John Brown was a failure, or John Brown was a great man. 

• My choice will be that John Brown was a great man. I selected this thesis because he was seen as a great man not only by many slaves, but by many white abolitionists.
• I also need to define greatness since I decided to argue that John Brown was a great man. To me greatness refers to individuals who possess a natural ability to be better than all others.
• My paragraph:

  "John Brown was a great man for at least two reasons. First and foremost, he was among a very few white men of his time who truly believed that African Americans were equal in all things - that they were politically, economically, and socially equal. Second, because of these unique beliefs within the white community, John Brown was willing to do anything to help the enslaved and free African Americans of the pre-Civil War South gain their freedom. He understood that blood would have to be shed before southern whites would ever allow their former slaves to be free - and he was willing to both shed blood of others as well as die for that cause. This made him a great man - a man who was better at understanding freedom than the vast majority of white men of his time."

Step 3: Use a primary source to defend your thesis. Now, I must examine at least three primary source documents and then pick one that I feel is THE MOST IMPORTANT in defending my thesis. I must write one paragraph explaining why I chose this source as my key primary document.  In my paragraph, I will include specific quotes in the document that persuaded me that my thesis was correct. I must also include a bibliographic reference for all documents.

• Three primary documents that I selected  
  • "A Declaration of Liberty by the Representatives of the Slave Population of the United States of America," by John Brown written in 1859 at http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/active_learning/explorations/brown/planning3.cfm
  • "John Brown's Last Speech" on October 16, 1859 at http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/johnbrown.html
  • "Senate Selection Committee Report on the Harper's Ferry Invasion", 36th Congress, 1st Session. Senate. Rep. Com. No. 278. June 15, 1860 at http://www.wvculture.org/history/jbexhibit/masonreport.html
• Select a primary document. I selected "A Declaration of Liberty."
• The following quotes support my thesis:
  • "The history of Slavery in the United States, is a history of injustice and cruelties inflicted upon the Slave in every conceivable way,and in barbarity not surpassed by the most savage Tribes. It is the embodiment of all that is Evil, and ruinous to a Nation; and subversive of all Good."
  • "They have refused to grant Petitions presented by numerous and respectable Citizens, asking redress of grivances imposed upon us,demanding our Liberty and natural rights. With contempt they spurn our humble petitions; and have failed to pass laws for our relief . . . ."
  • "We have warned them from time to time, of attempts ... to perpetrate, extend, strengthen, and revive the dieing eliments of this cursed Institution. We have reminded them of our unhappy condition, and of their Cruelties. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, we have conjured them ... to disavow these usurpations, which have destroyed our Kindred friendship, and endangered their safety. They have been Deaf to the voice of justice & Consanguinity."
  • "We therefore, the Representatives of the circumscribed citizens of the United States ... Do in the name, & by authority of the oppressed Citizens of the Slave States, Solemnly publish and Declare; that the Slaves are, & of right ought to be as free & and independent as the unchangable Law of God, requires that All Men Shall be. That they are absolved from all allegiance to those Tyrants, who still presist in forcibly subjecting them to perpetual Bondage, and that all friendly connection between them & such Tyrants, is, & ought to be totally desolved, And that as free, & independent citizens of these states, they have a perfect right, a sufficient & just cause, to defend themselves against the tyrany of their oppressors."
• Write an interpretation. I now need to write an interpretation and explanation of how THIS particular document and the quotes I selected support my thesis. This should be no more than three paragraphs in length.

  "John Brown's "Declaration of Liberty" provides a strong defense to my thesis that he was a great man. He explains that the United States government has allowed "injustice" and "cruelties" against slaves, a practice that is "ruinous to a Nation" and is "subversive of all Good." It becomes clear as the document unfolds that the greatest good would be for the United States govenrment to prohibit slavery. But it is also clear that Brown and his followers have consistently petitioned Congress and through such measures, have explained the continued cruelties of slavery and asked for it to be overturned. Congress has ignored such petititons and in so doing, has destroyed any positive relationship that Brown and his followers might have with their elected officials.

  Consequently, Brown declares that the Slaves are "absolved from all allegiance to those Tyrants" and that the relationship between slaves and such tyrants "ought to be totally desolved." Most importantly, Brown declares that the freed and independent slaves have "a perfect right" and a "just cause" to "defend themselves against the tyranny of their oppressors." Thus, by using similar language to the Declaration of Independence, Brown is declaring that his followers and the American slave population have the right to rise up against their oppressors - the United States government.

  This "Declaration" is the work of a great man because it takes a brave, and unique, step. It goes beyond the white man's rhetoric of freedom and instead, declares that this white man - Brown - and his followers will rise up with the slaves against tyrants and fight for the rightful freedom of African Americans. Despite the fact that Brown did not achieve his goal of freeing the slaves, Brown spent most of his life in that fight and eventually, gave up his life in defense of his true beliefs. This is not failure - this is success! This is greatness!"

Step 4:  Use a secondary souce to defend your thesis. I must find one secondary resource – a book or article - that supports my thesis. Then I must write no more than one paragraph explaining how and why this secondary document further supports my thesis. I must include specific quotes and/or images from the book/article that persuaded m to adopt my thesis and a bibliographic reference for my book or article.

• Selecting my secondary document:   I selected the book by David Reynolds, . John Brown, Abolitionist: The Man Who Killed Slavery, Sparked the Civil War, and Seeded Civil Rights. New York: Vintage Books, 2005.
  • Select the quotes that support my thesis.
  • "My stand on some key issues is (a) Brown was not insane; instead, he was a deeply religious, flawed, yet ultimately noble reformer; (b) the Potawatomie affair was indeed a crime, but it was what today would be called a war crime committed against proslavery settlers by a man who saw slavery itself as an unprovoked war of one race against another; and (c) neither Brown's provisional constitution nor the Harpers Ferry raid were wild-eyed erratic schemes doomed to failure; instead, they reflect Brown's over-confidence in whites' ability to rise above racism and black's willingness to rise up in armed insurrection against their masters." (pp. 8-9)
  • "The clan raised by John Brown was the only white family in pre-Civil War America willing both to live with black peovle and to die for them." (p. 40)
  • "Somehow, unbelievably, Brown always ended up on his feet... He endured poverty and countless lawsuits, while caring for a family that was ever growing and ever dying off, yet still remained confident of success. Later he killed five people and not only escaped prosecution but was subsequently revered by sages and business leaders as a second Christ. At the end he sufered the disgrace of being convicted for murder and treason yet remained cheerful in prison and looked forward to the gallows with joy. He did so because his idea of success had little to do with conventional definitions and because he lived in an era when institutions appeared to him (and to some others) as secondary to the 'higher law' of justice and morality." (p. 67)
  • "The ambivalence with which Brown has been viewed by whites contrasts sharply with the enthusiasm of his reception by African Americans. No white person in American history has aroused such warm admiration from blacks as has John Brown. Public displays of this admiration began during Brown's imprisonment and have continued into modern times," (p. 488)
  • "Had John Brown and a few other forceful antislavery persons not been able to bring about the fall of slavery, one can only speculate about the terrible results. What would have happened if Brown had not violently disrupted the racist juggernaut that was America?... even emancipation and manhood suffrage did not ensure the security of African Americans. It took nine decades of struggle for America to approach John Brown's goal of civil rights for all ethnic minorities. Even today the goal is not fully realized." (pp. 505-506)
• Write an interpretation. I must write an interpretation "and explanation of how THIS particular source and the quotes I selected support my thesis.

  In the very first paragraphs of this biography, Reynolds writes a revisionist interpretation of John Brown's life and struggle to free the slaves. In general, he provides a positive portrait of Brown's Calvinist upbringing which is contrary to almost all recent scholarship - especially Stephen B. Oates and Robert Boyer - who depict Brown as a bloodthirsty zealot and fundamentalist madman who did little in his bloody battle to free the slaves. Reynolds's describes Brown's bloody campaign during the Kansas Civil War and the Pottawatomie Creek Massacre where he lopped off the heads of pro-slavery men as sobbing wives and younger children looked on. Nonetheless, Reynolds insists that "it is misleading to identify Brown with modern terrorists." He especially provides ammunition for Brown's greatness by explaining that "No white person in American history has aroused such warm admiration from blacks as has John Brown."

  Further, Reynolds portrays Brown as a reasonable man who was well connected to his era's intellectual beliefs, and was a positive force of change in the pre-Civil War world: "The clan raised by John Brown was the only white family in pre-Civil War America willing both to live with black people and to die for them." To further support Brown's contemporary legitimacy, Reynold's illustrates how he was embraced by the leading intellectuals of his time, Henry Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson, who found in him an exemplar of the "higher law" of their Transcendentalist beliefs. Reynold's also argues that Brown's use of violence was an obvious choice for a man committed to a higher law. Indeed, he provides many examples of the ultra violent measures used by the pro-slavery forces, claiming that Brown was intelligent enough to understand that violence must be fought with violence.

  Reynold's interpretation of John Brown fits the phrase, "What is one man's terrorist, is another man's freedom fighter." He essentially argues that Brown used violence for a greater good - the emancipation of the slaves. In his final argument on behalf of John Brown's greatness, Reynolds writes: "Had John Brown and a few other forceful antislavery persons not been able to bring about the fall of slavery, one can only speculate about the terrible results. What would have happened if Brown had not violently disrupted the racist juggernaut that was America?... even emancipation and manhood suffrage did not ensure the security of African Americans. It took nine decades of struggle for America to approach John Brown's goal of civil rights for all ethnic minorities. Even today the goal is not fully realized." Reynolds clearly reinforces the themes that John Brown was a great man.

Step 5: (Optional) Use another primary and/or secondary source to test your thesis. Find another primary and/or secondary source that supports - or refutes - my thesis. Write no more than two paragraphs explaining how and why these primary and/or secondary documents support or refute my thesis. I must include specific quotes from the sources that support or refute my thesis; an explanation of how and why these documents either reinforced my own thesis or encouraged me to reconsider my thesis; and a bibliographic reference for each document.

• Select your primary and/or secondary sources.
  • Select the quotes that support or refute my thesis.
  • Write my explanation about how my quotes and other evidence support or refute my thesis.
  • Make my bibliography.

Step 6:  Reflecting upon your work as an Historian. This is perhaps the most important part of my research and modeling. I must now reflect upon the thesis I selected. After closely examining the primary and secondary sources, did they still support my thesis, or did they convince me to change my mind? Then, write a 1-page essay in which I discuss and provide evidence of why I either continued to support the thesis, any doubts that arose in the course of my research about my thesis, and a statement describing the 2-3 most important points that I found in all my resources to either support or reject my thesis.

• Decide whether you still support your thesis or whether you have changed your mind
  • Write about why I finally continued to support my thesis or why I changed my mind.
  • Describe the most important points that led to mydecision.
  • Share my written explanation of why I either continued to support my thesis or why I changed my mind.
  • Share my evidence and written explanation of my final decision.
  • Show my final bibliography.