Magazines: Articles in magazines are usually short in length and are written in a popular style. Examples of magazines that have articles on American history topics are American Heritage and Smithsonian.
Journals: Articles in journals are usually lengthy and are written by scholars and experts in the field. They often have bibliographies and extensive footnotes (which can provide leads to other sources). Examples of journals that have articles on American history topics are Journal of American History and Journal of Southern History.
To find primary-source articles about a topic in ProQuest Historical Newspapers, make sure you set the dates to a specific year or range of years. You may also want to limit your search to a specific document type such as an editorial or a front-page article.