Last updated: May 19, 2025
Lesson Plan
Your Day in Court: Bleeding Kansas Courtroom Program
What makes a judgement just?
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- Grade Level:
- Upper Elementary: Third Grade through Fifth Grade
- Subject:
- Social Studies
- Lesson Duration:
- 30 Minutes
- State Standards:
- Kansas History Standard: The student demonstrates a working knowledge and understanding of significant individuals, groups, ideas, events, eras, and developments in the history of Kansas
Essential Question
How can we maintain fair and impartial courts?
Objective
-Describe the different political leanings of the two opposing courts in this area.
-Explain the two laws that the defendant was accused of breaking (i.e. the Rebellion Act and the Preemption Laws related to trespass)
-Ask students to tell whether or not they feel that this courtroom dealt justice fairly.
Background
When the US Constitution was formed in 1787, slavery was granted legality, although you will not find the word slave or slavery in the US Constitution. Instead, the delegates who drafted the constitution dodged the word, instead favoring phrases such as, ”by adding to the whole number of free persons…three fifths of all other persons...," "the migration or importation of such persons as any of the states…shall think proper to admit...,” and “persons held to service or labor.” Many delegates from the North and the South were not happy about the union of their new republican constitution to a system that viewed man as property, but that was the price of union in 1787.
Various amendments or compromises related to slavery were added to the Constitution in the intervening years including the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854. With the passage of this act, new settlers into Kansas Territory were to decide by popular vote whether or not slavery would be allowed. Various communities sprang up throughout Kansas Territory. The former military post of Fort Scott was auctioned off to new settlers—and the town of Fort Scott was born. Most of the early townspeople were pro-slavery although Bourbon County and Linn County—bordering to the North—were mostly against slavery. Over the next few years, known as “Bleeding Kansas”, Fort Scott became known as a place of violence.
Preparation
- Set up the front of the classroom as you would a courtroom with a judge's bench, witness stand, and chairs for the prosecutor, defense attorney, witnesses, and jury.
- Appoint students to play the roles of the judge, attorneys, witnesses, and other roles as outlined in the script.
- Appoint twelve jurors with the instructions that they not see the script in advance. They are supposed to be fair and impartial.
Materials
Download Script for Courtroom Program
These are biographies for the characters in the play.
Download Biographies for Characters in the Play
Lesson Hook/Preview
This program will represent a mock court of the 3rd Judicial District, headed by Judge Joseph Williams. In attendance in this pro-slavery court will be Deputy Marshall John Little and Sam A. Williams, the Clerk. A case will be re-enacted before this court involving a free-state farmer driven from his land by the pro-slavery advocate George W. Clarke. Clarke had brought a band of Missourians to displace free-state farmers in northern Bourbon County. Free-State farmers driven from their claims sought to return to their farms. Supporting pro-slavery farmers who displaced the free-staters, Bourbon County officials issued writs of trespass against free-staters.
The case of William Stone and “Preacher” Southwood is an example of this troublesome period. In a sworn statement, Mr. Stone declared he was, “compelled to leave his home in September 1856, due to the Clarke raid,” and after crossing into Missouri he was further “compelled” by border ruffians to sign a bill of sale for his property. The land was signed to a Mr. Jobe. In June 1857, Stone, returning to his claim, found it occupied by a pro-slavery preacher named Southwood. Southwood stated he purchased the land from Jobe, a distant relative. Mr. Stone and about sixty friends put up another house for him on the same land to enable him to contest the right of Southwood at the land office.
On one occasion, Mrs. Southwood attacked Mrs. Stone while at a water well shared by both families, knocking her down with a handspike and dangerously beating her. A free-state court was formed, the “Squatters Court,” and they notified “Preacher” Southwood to leave his property within a specified time. Southwood did so and went to Fort Scott to file charges against Mr. Stone and others who backed Stone with the Rebellion Act—legislation passed by the pro-slavery legislature in February 1857 that made it unlawful for two or more persons to combine for the purpose of resisting the enforcement of the law-- and trespassing.
Procedure
Introduction
- Provide a brief summary of the formation of the town of Fort Scott.
- Identify the political views of pro-slavery, free-state, and abolitionists.
- Identify the case, the principal participants, and put the participants in their proper positions.
(2 minutes)
Activity
- The court will be called to order.
- Each participant will step before the judge and read their prepared statement of the incident.
- The jurors will listen to the proceedings and decide the guilt or innocence of the people on trial.
- A spokesman will be prepared to state the verdict.
(25 minutes)
Conclusion
- The verdict will be read and the facilitator will conclude the program with a discussion of:
- the pro-slavery court verdict,
- the squatters court verdict, and
- the Montgomery troubles of 1858 because of Fort Scott’s pro-slavery leanings.
(3 minutes)