Dred Scott Newspapers

Recently we've been looking at all of the events that led up to the Civil War.  One of the ones we spent a little more time on was the Dred Scott decision.  Way back in December we took a trip to the Old Courthouse as part of our "Government in Action" expedition.  While we were there, we got to reenact the Dred Scott trial that took place in the very same room at the Old Courthouse in downtown St. Louis.  Although Dred Scott was found to be a freeman during this trial, inevitably this trial wouldn't matter because the ruling was overturned by the Supreme Court almost ten years later deeming Dred Scott once and always property and a slave.

For this assignment, we looked back at all of the court cases involving Dred Scott, and focused a lot on the Supreme Court's ruling.  The students then chose out of a hat whether they were a Northerner or a Southerner.  Now that they had a role, they then were going to create a newspaper and write an article from that perspective about the Dred Scott case and outcome.  For some, it was quite challenging jumping into the shoes of a Southerner--someone who was happy with the ruling and was pro-slavery.  For others, they were relieved that they got to write a newspaper from the perspective of a Northerner because they could write about their anger over the case and how they advocated for the abolition of slavery.

Below are some of the newspapers the students created.  Once again, I was quite impressed with what these students created!  All of their newspapers were created in Pages using the "Newsletter" template.  These kids are rockstars!