My map: The Dred Scott case
The process of creating this map was hard at first, but became progressively easier. Getting the map to not zoom in so much was first an issue, I didn’t want it to seem like Johnson was born in a culdesac, so i had to mess around with it a bit until it worked. Other than that it went fairly smoothly. I was able to upload all my pictures no problem and it turned out to be a pretty fun activity, one that i would recommend to other people, and possibly use myself in presentations and projects to come.
The process of gathering this information was a great experience. I saw some really interesting pictures while searching for the right ones to use; I saw a political map of the US at that time, which i didn’t use, and i also saw a really cool image of a newspaper about the Supreme Court ruling which i did include in the slides. Initially I was planning on doing the project formatted around Reverdy Johnson and his role in the ruling, but became quickly captivated by the story of Dred Scott. I knew the case pretty well from my AP government class in highschool, but didn’t fully grasp the trials and tribulations that Scott went through before anyone even knew his name. I found it both interesting and heartbreaking the amount of times in which Scott, and even sometimes his family, moved around from state to state, owner to owner before eventually winning their freedom. I honestly didn’t know that he had sued for his freedom before the Supreme court case, and had won. Although it does make sense that he would have to go through the lower courts first, and wouldn’t have the money to take his case to the supreme court himself, i had never given it that much thought. I also did not know that he was eventually freed by his previous owners son, and that it was all because of his owners husband, who was a political figure. I found this activity very interesting and the story of Dred Scott now captivates me even more than before.
Your story map turned out amazing! I am glad that the process was a good learning experience as well. I learned so much more about the background of Dred Scott and I think you made the right choice in choosing to use a story map to illustrate this story. Indeed, Scott’s life featured many tragic turns and his path to eventual freedom was not straight. The fact that his journey took him to a handful of different states further reinforces how well this narrative works as a story map. Thank you for the effort you put into the map, the details were very informative!