Good point.  Those pesky documents will undermine all sorts of nonsense.  Chocy Brown is spot on here.
However, it is also important to understand that those who recorded the documents might have been biased in what they recorded.  Thus the record may be accurate as to the "fact" that something happened, but the fact may still have been recorded through the eyes of the recorder. 

Legal records, especially opinions by judges, are often skewed because parties present an "agreed statement of the facts" which in fact often is false.  The most famous example, perhaps, is the agreed "fact" in Brown v. Board of Education that the school Linda Brown went to was "equal" to the white school.  Everyone knew it was not equal in any way, but to get the court to focus on the unconstitutionality of separate but equal, and not on the actually inequality of the particular schools, the parties "agreed" the school was equal.  

========================================

Paul Finkelman
President William McKinley Distinguished Professor of Law 
Albany Law School 
80 New Scotland Avenue
Albany, NY 12208

518-445-3386 (p)
518-445-3363 (f)

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www.paulfinkelman.com


-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Chocy Brown
Sent: Wednesday, October 20, 2010 1:16 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] 10201544Z10 Debate Guidance And Other Pontifical Nonsense

Good points.
 
Old recorded history was also influenced by "ego" which took the "facts"  
out of focus; therefore, it comes down to proper research and going over 
those  old documents, again!

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