Dred and Harriet Scott Collection
Image Gateway –The Scott Family
Video Gateway –Teaching a Family Story
Click HERE for a transcript of this video
Behind the Image Gateway —Dred Scott’s Family
Featured Pamphlet: Citizen or Slave: The Dred Scott Decision, 1857
Featured Exhibit —Dred Scott Decision and Its Bitter Legacy (Google Arts)
Handout– Slavery Through Dred Scott
More Image Gateways
- Concise background on this painting
- Scholarly article about this painting
- Painting within Smithsonian Civil War Art exhibit
Part 1: Coming of War
The objective in Part 1 is to help classroom teachers find new and better ways to humanize the coming of war narrative. The conflict over slavery may well have been “irrepressible,” but nobody should teach this dramatic subject in ways that drain the dramatic elements of human choice out of the equation or make the Civil War seem inevitable. Moreover, by rendering complicating constitutional subjects such as the Dred Scott Case or the fugitive slave law in more human terms, teachers can actually help students find deeper insights into the underlying causes of the war.
Featured Document — John Brown at Court (1859)
Handout– Fugitive Crisis Timeline
Further Reading: UGRR and Coming of War // Harpers Ferry Raid
Featured Student Video: Old Carlisle Courthouse (10 mins.)
Slavery: Interpretive Trends and Special Resources
- Debating Slavery & Constitution: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
- Underground Railroad Web Guide
- Emancipation Digital Classroom
- Lincoln on Slavery with selected excerpts
- Debating the New Scholarship on Slavery
- Review of Edward Baptist’s slavery book withdrawn (The Economist)
- Edward Baptist on The Half Has Never Been Told (Politico)
- Jim Downs on slavery and capitalism debate (Huffington Post)
- Tom Cutterham updates the slavery and capitalism debate (The Junto)