Analysis of a historic document, using a what, when,where, who why approach - Essay Example

To illustrate how this approach functions to reveal a great deal of information about a document and/or a period, these five questions will be applied to a historical document, identified merely as an emigrant letter. The document presented is a pseudo-private document sent from an emigrant to the people he left back home. This can be determined as the letter is at first addressed to an individual “Dear Sir”, but immediately the letter is expanded to include anyone else who might be hungry for news of those who left their mother country for adventure and fortune in a new land.

In addition, the writer indicates he is “very glad to hear that you are all in the injoyment (sic) of of (sic) good health when it left”1 indicating that he is writing to more than one person, but he also mentions personal issues such as his joy to hear “that my old parents were still alive but I am very sure they must be very frail indeed at their stage of life.”2 The letter continues to detail the business of the various individuals who are a part of their colony or settlement who might be known to those back home, again reaching out to touch more than simply the individual to whom the letter is addressed as it is clear that others back home will be eager for news.

At the same time, the author provides detailed personal information about his own fortunes in the new land, which suggests to many in the modern age a greater degree of privacy than a community letter might provide. Thus, while it is a private communication, it nevertheless is recognized by the author that it will probably become public property upon its arrival as friends and family glean it for news of their loved ones. The document is dated as being written on August 23, 1862.3 It seems clear from its contents that this is a time during which families from England and Ireland were moving to