Lesson
Roger Taney and Injustice
Founding Principles
Virtues
Guiding questions
Essential Question
- How does the virtue of justice support liberty and equality for all?
Guiding Questions
- How can you tell if a law is unjust?
- How can you respect the rights and dignity of all people?
Learning Objectives
- Students will analyze the story of Roger Taney to identify examples of not upholding justice, which damages others’ inalienable rights and dignity.
- Students will analyze primary sources to think critically about the decisions and opinions of the past related to justice.
- Students will reflect on examples of injustice in the present day and how to redress them.
Materials
Student Resources
Teacher Resources
- Analysis Questions
- Virtue in Action
- Journal Activity
- Sources for Further Reading
- Virtue Across the Curriculum
Lesson Components
Lesson plan
Key Terms
- Injustice
- To harm others by applying unequal rules and damaging another’s inalienable rights and dignity.
- Popular sovereignty
- A political policy under which residents of a territory voted on whether slavery should be allowed or not.
- Secession
- Withdrawal from the Union of the United States of America.
- Combustible
- Easily inflamed.
- Travesty
- A grossly incorrect representation of something.
More Information
Procedures
- The following lesson asks students to consider the vice of injustice through the hubris decisions made by Roger Taney in the Dred Scott decision. Students will engage with the story of Roger Taney as they consider the question: How does the virtue of justice support liberty and equality for all?
- The main activity in this lesson requires students to read and analyze a narrative that explores how Roger Taney chose to act unjustly to try to save the Union. Students may work individually, in pairs, or small groups as best fits your classroom. The analysis questions provided can be used to help students comprehend and think critically about the content. As the teacher, you can decide which questions best fit your students’ needs and time restraints.
- An extension activity is provided for students to analyze primary sources. In the activity, they will think critically about the decisions and opinions of the past related to justice.
- Lastly, the lesson includes sources used in this lesson for further reading and suggestions for cross-curricular connections.
Standards
Related materials
Case background and primary source documents concerning the Supreme Court case of Dred Scott v. Sanford. This case deals with the issues of slavery, states’ rights, and the interpretation of our Founding documents. This lesson focuses on the question of how the two sides in the Dred Scott decision interpreted the same Founding documents and came to such different conclusions.
The Dred Scott v. Sandford case of 1857 was brought to the Supreme Court just four years before the start of the Civil War. Dred Scott sued his master for his freedom and Judge Robert Taney ultimately ruled two things. First, African Americans were not citizens and had no right to sue in court. Second, Congress did not have the constitutional authority to ban slavery from the states. This case is considered one of the worst rulings in the history of the Supreme Court.
During the mid-Nineteenth Century, all three branches of the United States government wrestled with the question of whether the unrestricted spread of slavery was protected by the Constitution. In this lesson, students will evaluate President James Buchanan’s reaction to the Dred Scott decision in light of our nation’s highest principles.