AP US History? Can someone honestly help me?

No need to answer all of them.. I'm just completely stuck and don't know what to write at all. If I knew examples I could take it from there.



What are the potential biases in each one and the problems such biases would pose for a historian who wanted to use them to write about slavery in the American South before 1860?



a. A speech made to an abolitionist society by a slave who escaped to the North in 1854.

b. A book written by an English aristocrat's wife about her travels throughout the south during 1848.

c. Oral interviews recorded in the 1930's with black people who had been slaves.

d. The diary of a plantation owner's wife, written in the years 1824-1855, her husband owned the largest plantation in Louisiana.

e. The ledger book for a county in South Carolina, kept for tax purposes, that recorded all sales and purchases of slaves and the value of each slave, covering the years 1830-1860.





Thanks in advance :DAP US History? Can someone honestly help me?
Almost all primary sources are biased,historians need to ascertain these biases and distill as much truth and accuracy as they can from primary sources.



a: The speech was probably written by someone else,likely an abolitionist that had no firsthand experience as either a slaveowner or as a slave.The speech could therefore contain exaggerations or even things that have been completely falsified for effect.Further,neither the slave nor an abolitionist is going to put forward any possible positives about slavery,only negatives.



b: She's likely to have only stayed with rich families,and not seen the reality of slavery up close.Her views could well be influenced by her contact with these families and their views on slavery.



c: As a general rule of thumb,the further one goes back in time the harder it is to remember things with 100% accuracy.Ex slaves interviewed in the 1930s would be very old,mostly only children at the time,so their memories might not be wholly accurate.



d: She's unlikely to criticize the system that has made her and her family obscenely rich;it's far more likely she will attempt to justify slavery as beneficial to the enslaved.



e: This would be a good source,as it's just a financial and economic record with no axes to grind and no points to make.Its factual accuracy is therefore going to be very high.However,as it's only for South Carolina 1830-1860 the figures can't be projected onto other states or into other years.AP US History? Can someone honestly help me?
Gee, after insulting us in the last question you ask us for help again.

I guess you are just one of THOSE types.



These are basic questions too. You should be able to figure them out without our nerdy brains.

Good luck.