Offering a Fair-minded Account

Extension

• Invite students to consult additional sources on the event, e.g., Battle of Bunker Hill, to find other points of view that might be offered and to discover if new information causes them to reconsider their own fair-minded account of the incident.
• In the Background to Trumbull's Painting (Background Information), it is suggested that Trumbull distorted some of the particulars in order to tell a greater"moral truth" about the battle. Are deliberately fictionalized accounts, such as paintings or historical novels or movies, acceptable as sources of historical knowledge?
• Encourage students to look for other passages in a textbook and in newspapers for evidence of obvious bias. Students should first rewrite these passages from an opposing perspective and then develop a fair-minded account, mindful of what little information they have of these events. Encourage students to consult additional sources to supplement the information presented to them.