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Grade Range: 8 - 11
This is an interesting collection of primary resources for those interested in British History ; the site has the texts of over 100,000 proceedings of London’s Central Criminal Court. There is also a good introduction in the “For Schools” section on how to structure a legal and civic history lessons using the site. The teacher’s page is geared towards British Curriculum standards, but it is still helpful in describing the site’s application to British History.
In the Classroom
Beyond the free lesson plans, use this site to obtain plenty of primary resources from early to modern England. During a unit on the American Revolution, use this site as a way to address the treason of Benedict Arnold. Open the site on the interactive whiteboard or projector and search for crimes related to treason or espionage. Go through the cases with students, highlighting sentencing and judicial opinions related to the offense. Once you have gone through a few cases, use the results you found to discuss what British attitudes may have been towards their own "turncoat" and how this may have impacted Benedict Arnold’s future working for the British Empire. This would also be a great activity to discuss how these same attitudes in combination with Arnold’s actions impacted American legislation towards treason. This could be used in either a civics or American History course.
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Tags
britain, courts, england, great britain, britain,
Subjects
Social Studies, Social Studies, Social Studies, Social Studies, Government/Civics: U.S, History & Culture: World, History & Culture: Europe,