Are you ready for a film that can lift your spirits as Shawshank Redemption did?
Set in Antebellum America, a slave finds that his continued relationship with the white children that grew up with him is stronger than his desire to live a simple life. The result will have lasting effects on the history of the world. In 1857, the President and Chief Justice of the United States attempted to make slavery universal. Only eight children stood in their way, this is their story.
A Film to be displayed at the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. And based on Dred Scott’s Virginia By J A Hines
Dred was probably the most traveled popular servant in United States History. Scott and his family traveled over five thousand miles through 19th Century America. He briefly encountered four United States Presidents, two wannabe Presidents, an inventor, an explorer, a writer, and two freedom fighters. In his travels across 19th century America, he met two Native American chiefs that saw peaceful coexistence as a solution and two commanding Generals whose armies fought the greatest battles on American soil.
All of these people shared valuable insights on the major topic of the day that influenced Dred’s decision to seek freedom for his family.
These encounters with Dred are secondary to Dred’s relationship with the children he raised and grew up with spanning five decades during the first part of the 19th Century. A time that shaped the path of our country.
1847 – a letter to Dred from his wife Harriet Scott.
Dred Scott has been gone for months to the deep south. Harriet, his wife, is pregnant with their second daughter. She is due at any time.
My Darling Dred:
I was elated to hear that you are among the living. It is hard to fathom that it seems like almost a year since I have seen you. My heart is overflowing with pleasure that I can hardly command words to communicate to you that you have a new daughter. Lizzy was born this week and is as fine and healthy an infant as you have ever seen. Mrs. Emerson named her to honor herself. She plans to sell both our girls. I have been delivering groceries for Samuel Russell. Mrs. Emerson worked me hard until Lizzy was born. I had one day off. I am tired but in good health. Eliza and I deliver groceries to a magnificent house about three blocks away. An older lady named Aunt Rachel answered the door. We became friends. Rachel introduced me to the Mistress of the house, Miss Elizabeth. I mentioned that my husband Dred has been away for many months in the deep south. Miss Elizabeth told me she grew up in Virginia with a servant boy named Dred. The more we described you the more it occurred to us we knew the same person. You my love. Elizabeth and I cherish that we have spent many hours together with our daughters. We both agree that they need to be protected from Mrs. Emerson and the lady on Morgan Street that sells babies. We must act fast before Irene Emerson takes them. Joseph, her husband, has introduced me to an attorney. He says a freedom suit will stop her from selling Eliza and Lizzy. My love for you is stronger than ever, please come home soon.
Harriet
Lizzie Scott
Lizzie benefited most from her family’s freedom by living the majority of ninety-nine years as a free person. She shared her freedom by helping raise her sister’s children after her sister died. Lizzie’s life spanned through the Civil War through World War II shunning publicity along the way.
She lived behind closed drapes largely in the shadows of the courthouse that decided her family’s fate. While she was eighty-five years old she would walk, rather than take the streetcar to pick up and drop off her niece. Lizzie feared anyone who would find out who she was until she died in 1945. She passed on memories of how freedom changed so much for her family, even if it could not change everything.
Frederick Douglass
After the United States Supreme Court ruled on the Dred Scott Decision in March of 1857 there was a tremendous backlash. The Northern part of the United States including Frederick Douglass, a great 19th-century orator comments on the decision.
Dred Scott was an enslaved African-American man in the United States who unsuccessfully sued for his freedom and that of his wife, Harriet, and their two daughters in the Dred Scott v. Sandford case of 1857, popularly known as the “Dred Scott Decision”. For more information about this film please reach out to me below.
Great project. I enjoy reading all the posts.
Have followed Walk With You for several years. It’s a great project with a story that needs to be told.
I was not into history growing up but as my age advanced so did my interest. Especially with my Mom’s work, displayed above, which I am supporting at this time. Good luck with you history based project it is a story worth telling.
I am the author of the book Walk With You the story of Dred Scott and the Blow Family of Virginia is based on. The name of the book is called Dred Scott’s Virginia and is available on Amazon or I have a few copies available if you email me.
Additionally, I have assisted with the script and am the interim Director. Here is a short summary of the film:
In the opening scene President James Buchanan and Chief Justice of the United States Roger Taney take a buggy ride. They conspire to allow slavery throughout the United States. The next scene forwards to May 1857 a roving reporter is looking for Dred and Harriet Scott’s house in St Louis Missouri. They are the Number One News Story of 1857. Harriet tells Dred’s story to the reporter.
In 1800, Dred was born in Virginia he was the property of Peter and Elizabeth Blow. However, the Blows children realize that Dred and his Virginia family are much more than property. Years go by, Peter Blow fails at everything except he has wonderful educated children who share their life experiences with Dred Scott until Dred is sold to a Doctor Emerson in 1832. Along the way, Dred marries Harriet in Minnesota and they have two children. Dr Emerson and Dred Scott meet important people including a young Samuel Clemens, John Fremont, Ulysses S Grant, Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, Zachary Taylor, and Joseph Smith. There are lessons to be learned in these encounters.
Dred Scott is reacquainted with the Blow Family children and destiny awaits them together as a team.
One of the most interesting scenes in the film is as follows:
Dred and Harriet Scott and their two daughters Eliza and Lizzy are in jail (pending the outcome of their trial. Since they are considered property by southern law they or remanded to the custody of the sheriff). Mrs Emerson will arrive the next day to take Eliza and Lizzie and sell them. The six Blow children arrive at the jail…walk past the jailer and enter the cell. Two of the Blow girls put Eliza and Lizzy under their skirts. They leave the jail cell and walk by the jailer. You can see that little feet walking past the desk of the jailer as the blowboys distract him with conversation. Dred and Harriet’s children are hidden by the Blow s for 5 years pending the outcome of their trials.
For years I have wondered about the relationship of the Blow Family and Dred Scott and his family. It seems that there was more than financial support between the two. I enjoyed reading this short piece and look forward to updates.