The Election on 1800

Today in class, we did the recreation of the election between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson in 1800. I thought this was an excellent activity to participate in. From the view as one of the undecided people, it looked like the speeches that were spoken by the people who played Adams and Jefferson were written for an actual Presidential Election. The partisans did a terrific job of putting all of the posters and questions together, too. Also, the whole class ran so smoothly. Everyone knew exactly what they were doing and when to do it, on basically no class time to prepare.
During the speeches, I was thinking about what it was actually like to take part in that election in 1800. We know that Jefferson won that election, but in our class vote, Adams won. What made Adams more appealing? Of course, the cupcakes were a big part of the bais because all of the undecideds want one. However, with the actual issues, I think what made Adams more appealing was his ability to state the facts how they were. The only fault with the question and answer section was that Adams was kind of dodging questions when they were not expected to be questioned.
That is what made the class so entertaining. Everyone had terrific questions to ask, and if the candidates or their managers didnt know how to answer them, they would get around it. This activity was really well done and very interesting to be a part of.