The Notorious Benedict Arnold

Use these activities to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity. 

The Trial of Benedict Arnold

Imagine that instead of fleeing to Britain, Benedict Arnold has been caught while hiding out in New York. The class will stage a trial, set in 1782, to decide Arnold’s fate. Your group will be assigned to one of the following roles in this trial:

• Public officials (judge, jury, and prosecutors): This group will be responsible for using online research and details from The Notorious Benedict Arnold to create a courtroom setting and procedure appropriate to the year 1782. The judge will preside over the trial, the prosecutors will present a case against Arnold, and the jury will reach a verdict.
• Benedict Arnold and his defense team: This group will be responsible for using online research and details from The Notorious Benedict Arnold to create Arnold’s defense, and they will present this defense during the trial, according to the rules established by the court.
• Witnesses Peggy Shippen, John André, George Washington, Joshua Hett Smith, Daniel Morgan, James Reed, Joseph Stansbury, David Williams (the militiaman who caught André), and John Champe (the officer tasked with abducting Arnold from New York): Members of this group will be responsible for using online research and details from The Notorious Benedict Arnold to thoroughly understand the characters they are portraying and to prepare their testimony about Arnold’s actions and character. They will accurately answer both defense and prosecution questions during the trial.

Teaching Suggestion: Roles for students in this activity vary enough to accommodate students with differing needs and abilities. You can modify the level of rigor by requiring more or less outside research; you might consider challenging more advanced classes to create brief research papers to demonstrate their understanding of the material they have consulted.

Paired Text Extension: After completing this activity, consider asking students to read one of the suggested paired texts and then write a paragraph explaining how they would try to defend the paired text’s protagonist from charges related to the criminal actions he commits during the story:

• “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe
• Macbeth (Shakespeare Classics Graphic Novels) by Gareth Hinds
• The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas