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Using Historical Evidence

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Using Historical Evidence

Read the fictional source set, then investigate how evidence can support, limit or complicate a historical claim. The extracts below are invented for this activity; they are not quotations from historical people.

Source file: Waitangi, 1840

A class newspaper is preparing an article about the signing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Its reporters have gathered these fictional sources for practising evidence skills. The details are historically grounded, but the wording in the extracts is invented. Source A — A journal entry written by a British visitor on 6 February 1840: “A great many people gathered near the shore. I could not hear every speech.” Source B — A modern historian’s summary, published in 2019: “The Treaty was signed at Waitangi on 6 February 1840, and copies were later taken to other places for signing.” Source C — A newspaper report published in 1840: “Several rangatira signed today; discussion continued about the document’s meaning.” Source D — A later recollection recorded in 1885 by a person who said they had attended: “I remember the crowd, but after so many years I may not recall every detail.”

1.Which source is secondary, and what feature makes it secondary?

2.A reporter wants evidence that people were still discussing what the Treaty meant on the day of signing. Which source best supports this point? Explain your choice.

3.Give one value and one limitation of Source A for investigating what happened at Waitangi on 6 February 1840.

4.Which sentence uses Source D most responsibly?

The crowd definitely behaved in exactly the way the witness remembered.
A person who later recalled attending described a crowd, while acknowledging that details might have faded.
Everyone at Waitangi agreed on the Treaty’s meaning.
Source D proves what every rangatira thought.

5.Match each historical-writing term to its best example.

A. Provenance
B. Corroboration
C. Inference
D. Context

3. Concluding that the writer had limited access to speeches because they could not hear them.
1. The newspaper report was published in 1840.
4. Considering that copies of the Treaty were taken to other places after Waitangi.
2. Comparing two accounts that both mention a large gathering.

6.A draft says: “Source A proves that every person at Waitangi understood the Treaty in the same way.” Identify the problem and rewrite the claim so it fits the evidence.

7.Write one sentence that introduces a source by naming its type, author or publisher if known, and date, then explains what it supports. Use Source C.

8.Sources A and D both recall a crowd, but Source A was written at the time and Source D was recorded decades later. What can a historian cautiously infer, and what should they avoid claiming?

9.Improve this sentence by adding specific attribution and a qualification: “People said the Treaty was discussed.” Use information from one source in the file.

10.Write a short conclusion (2–3 sentences) for the class newspaper answering: What can these sources tell us about the signing at Waitangi, and what remains uncertain? Use evidence from at least two sources.