Using Primary Sources in the Classroom: The Valley of the Shadow Project

In my analysis of the Valley of the Shadow project, I focused on the Virginia Studies program. I think it would be great for teachers to incorporate resources from this project into a Virginia Studies curriculum. The first SOL for Virginia Studies states that “The student will develop skills for historical and geographical analysis including the ability to a.) identify and interpret artifacts and primary and secondary source documents to understand events in history; b.) determine cause and effect relationships… g.) interpret ideas and events from different historical perspectives… [and] i.) analyze and interpret maps to explain relationships among landforms, water features, climatic characteristics, and historical events. This seems to be a group of standards that are referenced for the entire Virginia Studies course, and The Valley of the Shadow project is an ideal resource for ensuring that instruction about the Civil War upholds those standards. As a digital archive of primary sources from Virginia and Pennsylvania during the Civil War era, the Valley of the Shadow project allows students to understand the perspectives of actual people living before and during the war through letters, diaries, government records, newspapers, maps, images, timelines, church records, and speeches.

The project’s website is divided into three sections: the Eve of War, the War Years, and the Aftermath. The section on “the Eve of War” fits VS.7 by allowing students to examine primary sources for evidence of the differences between Pennsylvania, a northern state, and Virginia, a southern state to better understand the issues that led to the Civil War. The archive includes Census and Tax Records, which students could use to search for information on Virginia slave owners as well as free blacks in Augusta County, Virginia. The section on “the War Years” gives students a wealth of information regarding Virginia’s role in the war. Students can understand what life was like for soldiers and their families using the resources on the website, and read letters like the one from Jesse Rolston, Jr., to Mary Rolston from May 9, 1863, which details Mr. Rolston’s involvement in the Battle of Fredericksburg.

VS.8 states that “The student will demonstrate knowledge of the reconstruction of Virginia following the Civil War by a.) identifying the effects of Reconstruction on life in Virginia, b.) identifying the effects of segregation and “Jim Crow” on life in Virgiia; [and] c.) describing the importance of railroads, new industries , and the growth of cities to Virginia’s economic development.” Students can access letters, diaries, Freedmen’s Bureau records from Augusta County, maps displaying how people voted in postwar elections, photographs from the Confederate burning of Chambersburg, and other resources to learn about Reconstruction and the Jim Crow era. This project could be very valuable to teachers because they can be sure that all of the primary sources on the website are real.