Freedom of Expression: Speech and Press for Middle School
Suggested Teaching Instructions
Introduction:
In 1734, printer John Peter Zenger was arrested for printing seditious libel in two issues of his newspaper, the New-York Weekly Journal. One issue asserted that New Yorkers “think, as matters now stand, that their liberties and properties are precarious, and that slavery is now likely to be entailed on them and their posterity. His arrest was recorded in the minutes of the New York Colonial Council on November 18, 1734.
Watch The First Amendment and Our Five Rights and answer the questions that follow before analyzing the documents.
Learning Standards:
7.3 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE: Growing tensions over political power and economic issues sparked a movement for independence from Great Britain. New York played a critical role in the course and outcome of the American Revolution.
(Standards: 1, 4, 5; Themes: TCC, GOV, ECO)
7.3a Conflicts between France and Great Britain in the 17th and 18th centuries in North America altered the relationship between the colonies and Great Britain.
Students will identify the issues stemming from the Zenger Trial that affected the development of individual rights in colonial America.