Brutus. (1770). To the free and loyal inhabitants of the city and colony of New York. Evans 13180. Web.
In fact, “To the free and loyal inhabitants of the city and colony of New York” written by Brutus is the primary source used for the analysis. The document was written 95 years before 1865, which makes it valuable for consideration. At the same time, Alexander McDougall, who is supposed to be Brutus, is a person that lived in that time. Moreover, the document contains detailed, even though pessimistic description of the political and social tendencies in 1770. As a result, I would consider this source as primary since it matches all the important criteria and represents a powerful message to the society in the end of 18th century.
Secondary sources
Foner, E. (2020). New York workingmen demand a voice in the revolutionary struggle (1770). In Voices of Freedom: A Documentary History (Sixth ed., Vol. 1, pp. 88–90). W. W. Norton & Company.
The historical book named Voices of freedom: a documentary history and written by Eric Foner provides a brief description of the motives for Brutus to write the historical document that underlines the importance of developing ‘ideal’ citizenship. In addition, the description is aligned with the other politically and socially important events so that the analyst might experience reading about the New York revolutionary struggle in the context of the US society in 1770. I would consider this book as a valuable secondary source since it provides both objective and subjective perspectives on the analyzed historical event and, thus, judge its importance in ‘post-factum’ form.
Champagne, R. J. (1975). Alexander McDougall and the American Revolution in New York (1st ed.). Union College Press.
Finally, I added Champagne’s book named Alexander McDougall and the American revolution in New York as the background-providing secondary source. Most of the theories about the real name of Brutus, the author of the analyzed document, claim that Alexander McDougall is the only possible individual to write “To the free and loyal inhabitants of the city and colony of New York.” As a result, to fundamentally understand the author’s position, it is critical to analyze the social portrait of a person that represented the revolution in 1770. I would consider this source as valuable for my work since it provides a wider regard on the historical personalities of that time, which plays considerable role in building the logical chain of theories and facts.