Rachel+Douglas-Trade

__Summarizing__: The source is a letter signed an ever affectionate son, P.C. Cameron, to his dear father. The main topic of this letter is the poor health and the sudden deaths of loved ones. The son writes, also, to tell his father of the trade goods that are coming in and going out. __Contextualizing__: This letter was written on September 28, 1847, and sent from Fairntosh, North Carolina. The chills are going around, infecting many children. Many deaths are occurring because of this illness. __Inferring__: This letter suggests that the son and his father are very close-knit because of the adjectives “dear” and “affectionate.” I would assume that these two men are white because he refers to a black person with a negative connotation. Because of the way Cameron ends his letter, I would assume that his sisters live in Delaware or that his sisters went with his father to Delaware on a trip. __Monitoring__: More discussion on the “Dead Mildred condition” would be helpful to understanding who she is and what her condition is. Who is Virgil?
 * Source 1: Cameron, 1847-09-28 **

__Summarizing__: This is a letter written to Duncan Cameron in Raleigh, North Carolina, from his friends and relatives, the Ogdens, offering a business deal; the Ogdens are from New Orleans, Louisiana. The advertisement is for the cotton estates in Louisiana or Mississippi. __Contextualizing__: This letter was written on December 4, 1847, in New Orleans, Louisiana. __Inferring__: From this letter, I would assume that the Ogdens need some money, and their wealthy relative has the money necessary to purchase this beneficial land, so they decide to make a deal with him. The land is for 170 hands, which suggests that Mr. Ogden has a lot of slaves to tend this land, which again implies his wealth status. Two different prices are offered, suggesting that any amount around the asking price will do - they are just desperate for the money. __Monitoring__: Who are the friends and relatives, and why do they need money so desperately?
 * Source 2: Ogden, 1847-12-04 **

__Summarizing__: This source is a letter addressed to Duncan Cameron in Raleigh, North Carolina, from Frances Cameron in Hillsboro, North Carolina. A relative of Cameron needs money to get a man servant for assistance in the boarding house. We also hear of Mildred again. __Contextualizing__: This letter was written on December 28, 1847, sent from Hillsboro, North Carolina. It is around Christmas time or the holiday season. __Inferring__: I would assume that the writer and the recipient of this letter were not close or had not kept up over the years by writing because F. Cameron begins the letter by assuming D. Cameron will be very surprised to receive a letter from him. __Monitoring__: Why is the master of this man servant selling him if he has done nothing wrong?
 * Source 3: Cameron, 1847-12-28 **

__Summarizing__: This source is a letter addressed to Duncan Cameron in Raleigh, North Carolina, from Mr. Ogden in New Orleans, Louisiana. It discusses Mr. Cameron’s interest in purchasing this land. This letter details what the land can produce and how many servants it would take to tend to it. __Contextualizing__: This letter was written on December 28, 1847. __Inferring__: It seems as though the previous letter written to Duncan Cameron about the land was well-received, and he took the offer. I assume that the Ogdens do not have slaves that would be sufficient enough to tend to 3500 acres of land or they would not be giving away this land. __Monitoring__: Do the Ogdens have servants?
 * Source 4: Ogden, 1847-12-28 **

__Summarizing__: This letter is addressed to Duncan Cameron in Raleigh, North Carolina, and sent by John Hamll in Red Mountain, North Carolina. Hamll is writing to tell Cameron that his bank note cannot be renewed. __Contextualizing__: This letter was written on December 29, 1847, sent from Red Mountain, North Carolina. During this time, there has been a depression in the slave market. __Inferring__: John Hamll seems very confident in his relationship with Mr. Cameron because he writes with the assumption that Mr. Cameron will be understanding. __Monitoring__: What are the personal differences that he mentions?
 * Source 5: Hamll, 1847-12-29 **

From the letters of September to December 1847, it is apparent that the Cameron family was very wealthy and very well-known. These letters tell us the Cameron family has good trade; they have been offered land, as well as requests to help others financially in trade opportunitites.
 * Conclusion: **

This is a very neat tool with great scaffolding techniques. If a student finds himself uninterested in studying history, this would be a great tool to help him become intrigued with primary documents with the right methods to gain the important knowledge from each document. It places the student at the core of learning because he learns how to conclude evidence or inferences from primary sources, on his own. This is a very student-centered activity that requires students to dig deep into the source of information and gain the right material from the activity. I believe that all learning should include an element of student-centered learning because it places the student in the middle of his education, and this is exactly what SCIM-C provides. Furthermore, this can be used as a great tool to get students to work together, and perhaps jigsaw the material; it’s a great tool for collaboration. SCIM-C can also be used as a classroom discussion approach as different documents from separate historical times are analyzed and presented to find common themes in history, generally or specifically.
 * Pedagogical Implications: **