Jekyll2026-03-02T20:09:20+00:00https://iris-stories.github.io//hum230-douglass/feed.xmlOne of our goals in this course is to use digital tools to interrogate our local community. Today, we’re looking at Frederick Douglass’s speech on the Dred Scott decision, the result of a case heard in St. Louis and very much wrapped up in the Missouri-Illinois border region that we occupy today. The decision denied emancipation to Dred and Harriet Scott, an enslaved husband and wife who had been relocated for several years to Illinois and Wisconsin before being brought back to Missouri, on the basis that the Constitution denied citizenship to African Americans and that the Scotts had no standing in court. It rightfully sparked national outcry. In this speech, Douglass (a noted Black orator, writer, and public intellectual) decried the decision.<br><br><a href=https://iris-stories.github.io/hum230-douglass/douglass><h2>Read the speech</h2></a>Margaret K. Smith