About
This site is not a museum and is not affiliated with any museum, historic site, foundation or descendant organisation. It is a set of independent reading notes written by one historian. If you are looking for a historic property or a visitor centre, this is not it.
My name is Alan Pettigrew. I taught American history for twenty-two years, latterly at a sixth-form college in the north of England, and I retired in 2019. These notes began as handouts.
Why this domain
I registered it in 2019 because it was available and because the name is the shortest accurate label for the subject. I want to be explicit about what that means: this site is not the Roger Brooke Taney House, it is not a museum, it is not a historic site, and it has no affiliation with any organisation, foundation, historical society or descendant group. If you arrived here looking for a property to visit, you are in the wrong place and I'm sorry.
What the site is
Reading notes. A summary of a decision, its author, its consequences and where to read more. Written by one person, not peer reviewed, and not a substitute for the scholarship it points at.
My own position
I think Dred Scott was wrongly decided on the law available in 1857 as well as being morally indefensible, and I think the Curtis dissent shows why. Where that view shapes a page, I've tried to mark it. On the question of statues and memorials I have no settled view and the site doesn't take one.
How it's paid for
By me. No advertising, no sponsorship, no donations. There is nothing to buy.