Primary and Secondary Sources Explained

Historians work with a combination of primary and secondary sources. 

Primary sources are the "raw material" of history, evidence created at the time of the event studied.  These may include--but are not limited to--various types of documents. Objects of material history also may be used in a variety of ways; for example, pipe stems and bottle necks changed styles over time and can be used to give accurate dates to other materials found with them. Oral histories, recorded in writing or electronically, often preserve an eyewitness account of past events.  Statistical information, maps and pictures, and certain published materials may qualify as primary sources.  

Can you list a half dozen types of text material that a historian might use?

Secondary sources synthesize a collection of primary sources (and relevant secondary works) to describe and analyze the event being studied.  These commonly take the form of books, articles, lectures or exhibits.

Your list might include: letters, mortgages, manuscript census returns, diaries, bookkeeper's records, estate inventories, bills of sale, contracts, manumissions, bills of lading, sales receipts, trial transcripts, military orders....