Start by looking through the official National History Day 2022 Debate & Diplomacy in History Theme Book.

Then begin exploring the many historical resources available at the Massachusetts Historical Society.  You can begin searching for inspiration anywhere in our collections: by exploring our library catalogs, our online resources, our collection guides, or by visiting us in person.

Have research questions?  Not sure where to start?  Our Library Reader Services are happy to help!  You can contact our librarians at 617-646-0532, by email at library@masshist.org, or via live chat and virtual reference services with any questions.

Interested in obtaining reproductions of materials that have not been digitized? Learn about our reproductions policies on our website, or email reproductions@masshist.org with specific questions.

Questions to Get You Started

The following are a sample of the many potential topics for a National History Day 2022 Debate & Diplomacy in History project based on MHS Collections, digitized and on site. Please note that these ideas are just to get you started, and many of these subjects will have to be narrowed down to produce a high quality project. We recommend browsing our Online Collections for ideas as well--just a few of those collections are linked to topics listed below.

"It is important to consider the short-term and long-term impact of different events or exchanges on history. Students need to determine the legacies and consequences, good and bad, of the debates and diplomatic actions they choose. They must ask questions about successes, failures, and consequences to drive analysis. " (NHD Theme Book, 7). 

Debates and diplomacy are not limited to words and conversations. Rather, a piece of jewelry, a newspaper article, a gift, or even this document can convey a message and influence a negotiation or debate. Think through the ways in which words and visual objects can influence debates and impact relationships between people, communities, and nations.

Below are some questions to get you started:

1. What does debate mean? What are the different forms it may take?
2. What is diplomacy, and who is involved in it?
3. Why was a particular debate or diplomatic event/agreement important? How did it shape events that came after it?
4. How have diplomatic relations between particular nations soured or improved over time? What caused the changes?
5. What are the limitations of diplomacy? Was an agreement followed? If not, what happened instead?
6. How have debates over a particular idea changed over time, especially with the development of [object/thing/idea] or the occurrence of a particular event?

Thinking Through The Archive

Archive: "a collection of historical documents or records providing information about a place, institution, or group of people.”                                                                  Analysis: “detailed examination of the elements or structure of something.”

As historians, it is important to think through the authors of the sources that you are working with. What is their story, and were they in a position of power? What does the source tell us? What does it not tell us? Does it silence a particular narrative at the expense of sharing another?

• Northeast Boundary Papers, 1700-1799. This collection is composed of correspondence and other papers concerning the dispute over the St. Croix River, part of the lands of the Passamaquoddy which the U.S. and Canada illegally claimed as their own and used as part of their Northeast boundary in the Treaty of 1783. The collection contains depositions and interrogations of persons living in the vicinity of the river, including members of the Passamaquoddy Tribe and other Wabanaki nations, and of surveyors employed by both countries. How many different perspectives were involved? What were the goals of the different parties? Which voices are included or left out?
• Proceedings of Two Meetings with Native Americans, July 1780. This small collection contains the proceedings of two meetings held between Native Americans and the British superintendent of Indian Affairs, Col. Guy Johnson, at Niagara on 3 July and 6 July 1780. The proceedings include transcripts of speeches by Johnson accusing the Native Americans of disloyalty and speeches by tribal representatives accusing the British of deception. The transcripts were written in an unknown hand. Historically, institutions like the MHS have housed mostly sources telling the experiences of white people. Who is likely to have recorded these speeches? Why are these proceedings important? And, why is it that the archive often only communicates a more whitewashed perspective?
• Massachusetts Debates a Woman's Right to Vote. The MHS collection highlights the fight over a woman’s right to vote in Massachusetts by illustrating the arguments made by suffragists and their opponents. The purpose of a debate is to present the audience, and judges, with many viewpoints and perspectives. Why is it important to communicate many views, even if they contradict each other?

Debate and Diplomacy: Prompts Through The Eras

Early New England

• Samuel Sewall's The Selling of Joseph: A Memorial: Printed in 1700, this was the first published anti-slavery tract in the American colonies. What argument does Sewall make against slavery? What arguments doesn't he use? Who is his audience? Who is he debating against? Was he successful? Why/why not?
• Maps of the French and Indian War: Who created each map? What was the map's purpose? Whose perspective does the map reflect?
• The Boston Massacre: Examining a Diversity of Perspectives: What were the debates in the aftermath of the event? Was there a winner? How did these narratives shape the way in which we remember the event today?

The Revolutionary War Era

• The Coming of the American Revolution: Did certain debates lead more directly to war than others? Was there any diplomacy in the lead-up to the war? If so, why did it fail?
• The Annotated Newspapers of Harbottle Dorr, Jr.: Newspapers have long been a venue for public debate. Dorr was a member of the Sons of Liberty: how might his political associations have impacted the ways in which he created, annotated, and organized his newspaper collection?
• Abolition in Massachusetts and 1783's Legal End of Slavery. Who were the people and groups involved in abolition? Did they agree with one another? How did they communicate their debates?

The Early Republic

• Debates on the Ratification of the Constitution in Massachusetts: What were the debates over the new state constitution? How were they resolved (or not)? 
• Petition of Prince Hall to the Massachusetts General Court: What arguments did Hall and his fellow petitioners make on behalf of freedom for all Black people? Were they successful? How did their petitions impact later antislavery efforts?  
• Treaty of Peace and Friendship between the United States of America and the Bey and Subjects of Tripoli [Barbary]: Why was this treaty necessary? What followed it, and why?
• The emergence of passports for travelers and ships (e.g., 1803 passport for Thomas Handasyd Perkins; 1818 passport for the ship Minerva; and, 1821 Passport for Joel Parker): Why did the United States decide it was necessary to issue travelers and ships passports? How did passports affect diplomatic relations between nations? 
• The Ann Powell Clarke Travel Journal includes descriptions of major Haudenosaunee councilmen & women, including Thayendanegea (Joseph Brant) & Karonghyontye (Captain David Hill) as she traveled down the Saint Lawrence River in the summer of 1789. Powell was a white colonial woman. How might that impact her observations? 

The 19th Century 

• Massachusetts and the National Debate Over Slavery, 1800s-1840s:What was the legacy of the Amistad trial?
• William Lloyd Garrison’s The Liberator: Whose voices are given space in the newspaper? What debates fill the pages?
• Anthony Burns and The Fugitive Slave Act: Following his self-liberation from slavery, Burns escaped to Boston. Due to the Fugitive Slave Act, he was jailed in the summer of 1854, raising a public outcry. (The Boston Anti-Man-Hunting League was founded in 1854 to aid freedom seekers and resist the Fugitive Slave Law.) Burns wrote a letter to Boston lawyer and abolitionist Richard Henry Dana, imploring abolitionists to purchase his freedom. In 1857, Burns again wrote to Dana sharing the opportunities--including a college education--that freedom had made possible for him. Was Burns' story typical? What role did individuals, groups, laws, and the courts play in Burns' life and in response to the Fugitive Slaw Law more broadly?
• The Civil War Diaries of Charles Francis Adams: CFA was a diplomat at the Court of St. James, tasked with maintaining British neutrality in the American Civil War. The diaries span January 1861-April 1865. Why was British neutrality important for the success of the Union Army? How did CFA achieve this diplomatic goal?

The 20th Century

• The Treaties of Peace, 1919-1923: For which countries were the peace treaties following WWI a success? A failure? How did they shape the decades that followed?
• Margaret B. Wright and Female Journalism Capturing Women in the Workspace: What specific arguments does Wright make? How have debates over women in the workforce changed over time? 
• Sheldon Leavitt Crosby Papers, 1914-1939 and Photographs depict Leavitt's diplomatic work, particularly in Turkey during the interwar period. Learn more about the Sheldon Leavitt Crosby photographs and the 1925 bombing of Damascus, Syria in this 2019 MHS Beehive blog post. What was the role of diplomacy following WWI? In what ways did diplomacy fail to maintain peace? 

 Primary Source Highlights

Historians use many types of media to conduct research. For example, they may look at diaries, letters, records, photographs, maps, or newspapers to perform their work. Similarly, diplomats use more than words to convey messages and maintain relationships. What can these media tell us about a nation, event, or time period at-large? Here are examples of interesting documents and artifacts which could inspire your NHD project.

Diplomatic Medal of the States-General of the United Provinces of Holland given to John Adams

 

This gold medal was presented by the States-General of the United Provinces of Holland to John Adams upon his departure as minister on 6 March 1788. Adams was the first envoy to Holland from the United States, and this is the only 18th-century diplomatic medal known to exist. Learn more about the diplomatic work of John Adams and John Quincy Adams at the Adams Family Papers and Adams Papers Digital Edition!

 

Many U.S. diplomats received gifts while performing duties abroad. For example, Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge received a baton made by An-Thanh Nuy Chuong Quan-Doi, a Vietnamese artist, circa 1963-65 in honor of Lodge's ambassadorship. 

Examining Symbols

[Diplomats] perform the critical task of cultivating relationships with foreign counterparts through skillfully selected words, tools, and actions. But when words fail due to language differences, time constraints, physical distance, or intractable disagreements, nations sometimes communicate through carefully selected symbols (NHD, 12).

African Meeting House, Boston, Massachusetts

 

 

The African Meeting House stands at 46 Joy St. in Beacon Hill. Built in 1806, it is the oldest extant Black church building in the United States, and today is part of the Museum of African American History. Throughout the nineteenth-century, the African Meeting House hosted numerous anti-slavery events, including the founding of the New England Anti-Slavery Society by William Lloyd Garrison in 1832; the 1833 farewell address of Maria Stewart, a Black woman and the first American-born woman to speak publicly in a gender-mixed audience; an 1860 anti-slavery speech by Frederick Douglass after being run out of Tremont Temple; and the 1863 recruitment to the 54th Massachusetts Regiment led by Colonel Robert Gould Shaw  (MAAH).

Letter from John Quincy Adams to William Eustis, 25 April 1808, Regarding the Embargo Act 

 

Not only was the Embargo Act of 1807 divisive amongst politicians, merchants, and everyday Americans, it turned out to be a total failure! (Deeply unpopular, the act led to widespread smuggling. It was also costly; the act ultimately hurt the economy of the United States more than the intended targets--Great Britain and France.) Several collections held at the MHS contain different perspectives on the Act. For starters, check out Letters to William and Caroline Eustis, in which William, a diplomat, corresponds with both John Quincy Adams and Thomas Jefferson over their support of the Embargo Act. (JQA even broke with the Federalist Party over the issue.) You can dig deeper into JQA's reasons for his support of the Act in his diaries.

 

Looking for another perspective? In the Bromfield and Clarke Family Papers, John Bromfield discusses business conditions in England aboard the ship Marie during the 1808 embargo, including letters discussing the financial and physical dangers of delivering a shipment of goods from the United States.

Banquet to the Ambassadors of Japan, by Members of the Boston Board of Trade: Bill of Fare

 

This handsome hand-painted silk menu was printed for a farewell dinner honoring Japanese diplomats and technical advisors after a seven-month visit to the United States. Among the visitors were key figures in the Meiji Restoration of 1868 and the new imperial regime. Ralph Waldo Emerson and Oliver Wendell Holmes delivered speeches that evening. Why might a banquet be an important part of diplomacy? What is the role of non-diplomats, such as authors, poets, and boards of trade, in such events?

 

The MHS holds numerous collections related to American diplomats working in countries throughout Asia. For example, in the Phillips Papers II diplomat William Phillips write letters and kept diaries discussing his work in Beijing, China in the early 20th century; the George von Lengerke Meyer Papers include materials related to Meyer's ambassadorship to Russia during the Russo-Japanese War of 19005-1906; and, the Maria Revere Balestier Papers, 1834-1847, contain information on Balestier's life as the wife of a U.S. diplomat while she lived in Singapore with her husband and children. Content Warning: Balestier's descriptions of the Malay, Chinese, and Indian people with whom she and her family interacted are explicitly racist.  

Old South Meeting House

 

Boston is home to many historic structures that have been sites of debate for centuries. Old South Meeting House is one such place. Built in 1729 as the church for a Puritan congregation, the Old South Meeting House was the largest building in colonial Boston. It became the site of mass protest meetings in the years leading up to the American Revolution. For example, in 1768, townfolk held a meeting against the impressment of sailors into the British Navy; from 1772-1775 many gathered to commemorate the anniversary of the Boston Massacre and argue for independence; and, when war broke out in 1775, British soldiers destroyed the interior of the Old South Meeting House and other symbols of the Patriots' cause. In the 20th century, Old South Meeting House continued to be a space known for its protection of free speech and for lively debate over contemporary issues.  (Revolutionary Spaces)

 

 

MHS Collection Guides

Here are just a few of the numerous collection guides at MHS with manuscripts and artifacts related to National History Day themes.

This set of collections include digitized materials:

• Rose Dabney Forbes Papers, 1902-1935: Forbes was involved in the American Peace movement, and her papers include records for the Massachusetts Peace Society, the American Peace Society, and the Women's Peace Party/League for Permanent Peace.
• Women's Education Association (Boston, Mass.) Records, 1871-1935: The WEA worked to improve education for children and women, locally and nationally.
• Presidential Letters at the Massachusetts Historical Society--An Overview : This subject guide is an overview of the Massachusetts Historical Society's U.S. presidents holdings of all known letters written by presidents found in the Society's manuscript and autograph collections.
• Massachusetts Association Opposed to the Further Extension of Suffrage to Women Records, 1894-1920: This Massachusetts Association was founded in May 1895, and its primary function was to obtain signatures for "remonstrances" against "the imposition of any further political duties upon women." These "remonstrances" were circulated to offset the petitions of the suffragists. What were the short- and long-term consequences of anti-suffrage groups and efforts?
• The Society for Propagating the Gospel Among the Indians and Others in North America Records and the Benjamin Colman Papers give insight into white Christians' missionary efforts to convert Indigenous people to Christianity. Whose perspectives are included in these documents, and whose is missing? What did 'success' look like for the Society, and how did the Society's work change over time? What was the lasting impact of the Societies for Propagating the Gospel? 
• Visual Materials of Antislavery. MHS’s website Images of the Antislavery in Massachusetts is a digital archive that includes some 840 photographs, paintings, broadsides, banners, and sculptures related to antislavery. How do these visual materials work to persuade others to join and support antislavery efforts?
• Who Counts?  A Look at Voting Rights Through Political Cartoons.  Political cartoons have long served to provoke public debate, illustrating opinions of the day for the masses. From early in the 19th century, arguments over voting rights—who votes and who counts the votes—have been depicted in cartoons, especially with the rise of illustrated newspapers and magazines with a national circulation before the Civil War. Featuring examples of published cartoons from the MHS collections as well as other libraries and foundations, this exhibition illustrates how cartoonists helped to tell the story of voting rights in the United States, including modern reinterpretations of these topics by Boston-area editorial cartoonists. How do prior battles over voting rights impact the present day? How are today's debates over voting rights similar? Different?

The following collections have not been digitized; however, you may make an appointment to view materials in person, or you may request reproductions of materials.

• Massachusetts Audubon Society Records, 1874-2011: The nation's first Audubon Society, the MA branch was founded to discourage wealthy, fashionable women from wearing real bird feathers in their hats. The group was influential in advocating for the passage of the 1900 Lacey Act, which prohibited interstate shipment of birds killed in violation of local laws. 
• Massachusetts Temperance Society Records, 1813-1929: Records span from the founding through the organization's dissolution, and include correspondence. What is the legacy of the temperance movement?
• Timothy Pickering Papers: Following the Revolutionary War, Pickering served the federal government as a negotiator with the Seneca Nation in western Pennsylvania and, later, served on a diplomatic mission to the entire Haudenosaunee Confederacy which culminated in the 1794 Treaty of Canandaigua. As Secretary of State, he helped to implement the Jay Treaty, and was responsible for maintaining Franco-American relations. The latter did not go well, and his rocky relationship with President John Adams led to his dismissal in 1800.
• Henry Lee Shattuck Diaries, 1953-1954: Housed within the Shattuck Family Papers, these diaries chronicle Shattuck's work in Germany as the chairman of the Interim Mixed Parole and Clemency Board for the U.S. State Department, including meetings with diplomats, social life and customs, and daily activities.
• Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. Papers II: During the 1950s and '60s Lodge served as an ambassador to the United Nations, Vietnam, and Germany. In 1969, he headed the United States delegation to the unsuccessful Peace Talks with Vietnam.