Primary & Secondary Sources
Aligned to C3.D3.1 — C3 Framework for Social Studies State Standards.
What this lesson teaches
Historians build the past from sources. A primary source comes from the time being studied — a letter, artifact, law, or eyewitness account. A secondary source is made later by someone studying those primaries, like a textbook or documentary. Strong history checks the evidence: who made a source, when, and why.
Worked example
Hammurabi's law stone is a primary source — carved by Babylonians themselves around 1750 BCE. A modern textbook chapter explaining what those laws reveal about Babylon is a secondary source built from that evidence.
Practice questions
- Give one example each of a primary and a secondary source.
- Explain why knowing WHO created a source and WHY helps you judge it.
- Two sources describe the same battle very differently. Explain how you would decide which to trust, using ideas about evidence.
Watch the lesson
Every lesson comes with a video taught in English and Spanish — the same video the QR code in the printed workbook opens.
▶ Watch this lessonEn español
Fuentes Primarias y Secundarias
Los historiadores reconstruyen el pasado a partir de fuentes. Una fuente primaria proviene de la epoca estudiada: una carta, un artefacto, una ley o el relato de un testigo. Una fuente secundaria se crea despues, por alguien que estudia esas fuentes primarias, como un libro de texto o un documental. La buena historia examina la evidencia: quien creo una fuente, cuando y por que.
Ejemplo: La piedra de las leyes de Hammurabi es una fuente primaria, tallada por los propios babilonios hacia el ano 1750 a.C. Un capitulo de un libro de texto moderno que explica lo que esas leyes revelan sobre Babilonia es una fuente secundaria construida a partir de esa evidencia.
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