What follows are three lesson plans derived from the strategy section above. The first should be taught as part of a unit on the Constitution. It lays out important facts and establishes a theme that will provide an important element of the Dred Scott
unit later in the curriculum. The other two provide students the opportunity to explore the details of the case and engage in critical analysis.
Lesson Plan: The Founding Fathers, Race, and Slavery
Objectives
Students will identify and articulate the contradictions between racial attitudes and ideals of equality among the leaders who wrote the Declaration of Independence and framed the Constitution.
Materials
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Selection from the Declaration of Independence
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2.
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Sections dealing with or referring to slavery in the Constitution
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3.
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Excerpts from Thomas Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia, Query 14 “Laws” The administration of justice and description of the laws? available at the Electronic Text Center of the University of Virginia Library web site.
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Procedure
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- Write the following quote on the board by Don E. Fehrenbacher in reference to the attitude of the framers of the Constitution toward slavery:
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It is as though the framers were half-consciously trying to frame two constitutions, one for their own time and the other for the ages, with slavery viewed bifocally -- that is, plainly visible at their feet, but disappearing when they lifted their eyess
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Explain to students that the purpose of this lesson is to explore why this was so. Why was it so difficult for them to rise to their own ideals?
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- Have a student read out loud the sentence in the Declaration of Independence that begins “We hold these truths…” Ask students to explain in their own words the ideal being expressed in that sentence.
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- Ask students to open their textbooks to the Constitution and read the following selections: Article I, Section 2, Clause 3; Article I, Section 9, Clause 1; Article IV, Section 2, Clause 3. Discuss the following questions: What do these three clauses have in common? Do any of them actually mention slaves or slavery? Why not? What does this fact indicate about attitudes toward slavery at that time?
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- Distribute excerpts from Jefferson’s
Notes on the State of Virginia, Query 14
. Select and duplicate passages in which Jefferson describes the “Negro race” on pages 265-266. Tell students that this was written in 1781 only five years after the Declaration of Independence and six years before the writing of the Constitution. Have students read the excerpts out loud. Discuss the following questions: What are some of the surprising and offensive ways that Jefferson describes blacks? What is the tone of the writing? Is it emotional or intellectual? Is Jefferson expressing passion or reason? Can any assumptions be made that most Americans in that time would agree with his characterizations?
Evaluation
For homework students should write a brief reflection on the reasons for the contradictions expressed in the Fehrenbacher quote. The reflection should include references to the ideals of the Declaration of Independence, the acceptance of slavery without naming it in the Constitution and the racial attitudes expressed in Jefferson’s
Notes.
Lesson Plan: Role Play -- Oral Arguments On The Dred Scott Case Before the Supreme Courtt
Objectives
Students will outline the essential elements of Dred Scott’s life that were the basis for his claims to freedom.
Students will research, write and present arguments in support of Scott’s suit.
Students will research, write and present arguments to deny Scott’s suit.
Materials
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1. Handout: A summary of the facts of the case. It can be drawn from the “objectives” section above.
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2. Handout: Role assignments for each of the participants.
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3. Copies of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
Procedure
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1. Assign roles to the students in the class. Three students should play the role of Scott’s lawyers, three students should play the role of Sandford’s lawyers, and three to five students should play the members of the Supreme Court. The rest of the students should be divided into three groups of newspaper reporters: one group will be writers for the
New York Tribune,
a Republican paper, another will be for the
Charleston Mercury,
a southern Democratic paper and the third will be for
New Hampshire Patriot
a northern Democratic paper.
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2. Hand out the summary of the facts of the case and the appropriate role instructions the students.
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3. Depending on student ability and the length of the class period (block periods work best with role plays) about 40 minutes will be necessary for students to prepare. Students who are playing the lawyers should divide the three questions that they must argue (see role instructions below) and prepare a short statement in answer to each question. They should back up their arguments with facts from the case, the Constitution and, if necessary, the Declaration of Independence.
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4. Students playing members of the Supreme Court should locate the sections of the Constitution that relate to the case (identified in their role instructions) and develop at least one question for each lawyer on the meaning of those sections.
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5. The newspaper reporters should write a brief preview of the case outlining the basic facts and expressing a bias -- based on the party affiliation of their newspaper -- as to what the proper outcome should be. The result should be a news story that reports on the impending oral arguments.s.
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6. When the students are ready, the lawyers should rise and present their arguments on each of the questions at issue in the case. The justices should present each lawyer with at least one question to answer. The questions can come from those that they prepared or one that comes to them in the course of listening to the presentation. Each group of three lawyers can work together on their response -- or they may simply say that they have no response.
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7. All reporters must take notes on the presentations in order to prepare editorials either condemning or supporting the eventual ruling.
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8. When the oral arguments and questions have been completed, the justices should withdraw into a separate room -- or in the hallway if necessary -- and confer on what their ruling should be. In the event of a disagreement, the majority opinion will constitute the ruling.g.
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9. While the justices are conferring, the rest of the class can begin working on the writing assignments that will provide the evaluation for the lesson.
Role Assignments
Lawyers for Dred Scott: Your task is to answer the following questions to support Scott’s case-
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Can blacks sue in federal court? Are they citizens of the United States? For this question you must make the case that Scott is a citizen of the United States. Use the Declaration of Independence to help establish the intent of the framers of the Constitution. Point out that the Constitution nowhere specifically denies citizenship to anyone on the basis of race. Provide some examples of where the framers could have made racial distinctions, but used the term people instead: the Preamble; Article I, Section 2, Clause 1; the 9th Amendment; and the 10th Amendment. Having established that Scott is a citizen you can then make the claim that has the right to sue in federal court because the respondent (the plaintiff is the one suing and the respondent is the one being sued) lives in New York.
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Did Congress have the power to prohibit slavery in the territories? In other words, was the Missouri Compromise constitutional? Read for the Court Article IV, Section 3, Clause 2 of the Constitution. You might point out that if the right to prohibit slavery was specifically denied, the framers could have written that right there.
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Was Missouri obligated to recognize Dred Scott’s freedom based on his residence in either Illinois or the Wisconsin Territory? Your argument here must rest on the fact that those to jurisdictions didn’t simply lack laws
enforcing
slavery, they actually had laws
prohibiting
slavery. When Scott’s owner took him there to live, Scott became free and once free a person cannot be returned to slavery. You should also point out that for 20 years before Scott sued for freedom, the Missouri courts had always freed slaves who could prove that they had lived in jurisdictions that prohibited slavery.
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Lawyers for John Sandford: Your task is to answer the following questions to support John Sandford’s case-
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1. Can blacks sue in federal court? Are they citizens of the United States? Your response to this question needs to show that blacks cannot sue in federal court because they do not have rights of citizenship that are recognized in the Constitution. Africans were brought to America for the express purpose of providing labor as slaves. The vast majority of Americans do not accept the idea of equal status for the descendents of those slaves and equality was certainly not generally accepted at the time of the Constitution. A state can choose to give an African-American state citizenship, but that does not confer U.S. citizenship. (Granted, this is a weak and morally offensive argument to make, but we all understand that you are just playing a role)
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2. Did Congress have the power to prohibit slavery in the territories? In other words, was the Missouri Compromise constitutional? Read for the Court the 5th Amendment where it refers to the right to property and due process.
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3. Was Missouri obligated to recognize Dred Scott’s freedom based on his residence in either Illinois or the Wisconsin Territory? Read for the Court the 10th Amendment. This is an issue for the State of Missouri to decide. That is where Scott lives and it is the laws of Missouri that he must live under. The Missouri Supreme Court has ruled that he is a slave.
Members of the Supreme Court: Your task is to listen to the arguments, ask questions to clarify those arguments or to poke holes in them if you find them weak. When the arguments are complete you will retire to confer and decide which way you want to vote. The majority wins. You must explain to the class why you voted the way you did.
Members of the Press: Your task is to listen to the arguments and the ruling, report on the result and express your opinion. Your reporting should be utterly biased. If you write for a Republican paper you must call out for black citizenship, defend the Missouri Compromise and demand that Dred Scott be made free. If you write for a southern Democratic paper, you must call for the opposite outcome for these three questions, but you especially must demand that slave owners property rights be protected all over the country. If you write for a northern Democratic paper, you will be more concerned that the rights of free blacks be limited and that the territories and new states have the right to choose whether they want to be slave or free.
Evaluation
Upon completion of the lesson each student must write up his or her position on the case in the form of a 1-2 page paper. The lawyers will write out their arguments, the justices will explain their votes in the form of written opinions and the reporters will write editorials.
Lesson Plan: The Dred Scott Opinions
Objectives
Students will articulate the reasoning used by Justice Taney in denying Scott’s claim.
Students will articulate the reasoning used by Justice Curtis in dissenting from Justice Taney’s opinion.
Materials
Handout: Excerpts from Justice Taney’s opinion in
Scott v. Sandford
(see appendix)
Handout Excerpts from Justice Curtis’ dissent in
Scott v. Sandford
Highlighters for those students who don’t have them.
Procedure
Once the copies of both opinions have been handed out, the students will begin a process called text rendering. Each text should be handled separately, so it will probably be necessary to use two class periods. In text rendering the students read the text four times:
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- In the first reading students read the entire document silently. Students should be told that this first reading is simply to understand the general nature of the reading rather than fully comprehend it.
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- For the second reading students will read aloud. Any student can begin and read as much as they want. When they stop any other student can jump in. It may be necessary to set a limit on how much one individual can read.
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- For the third reading students again read silently, but this time use highlighters. They should be told to highlight any part that seems important, is surprising or confusing. The individual portions that students highlight should be short -- generally not more than a phrase or a sentence..
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- In the fourth reading students will read out loud what they have highlighted. They can read in any order and at any time that no one else is reading. Students can also jump in and read a selection in unison if they find they have highlighted the same thing.
Evaluation
For homework students should write a short one page summary of each excerpt. The summary should explain in the students’ own words the reasoning each justice uses in defending his position. An alternative assignment would be for students to explain the flaws in Taney’s reasoning concerning black citizenship as explained by Curtis.