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Dred Scott Case
Dred Scott Decision
Dred Scott, Dred Scott
Case 1857, Dred Scott Case and Decision, Dred Scott US Supreme Court Decision, Dred Scott Landmark Decision, Dred Scott Timeline,
Slave Dred Scott Summary, Fugitive Slave Law
Dred Scott Case
U.S. Supreme Court
Decision
In 1846, Dred Scott and his wife Harriet filed suit for their freedom
in the St. Louis Circuit Court. This suit began an eleven-year legal fight that ended in the U.S. Supreme Court, which issued
a landmark decision declaring that Scott remain a slave. This decision contributed to rising tensions between the free
and slave states just before the American Civil War. See also Dred Scott Timeline and Abolitionists and the American Civil War.
| Dred Scott (1857) |
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| Dred Scott (1857) |
In March of 1857, the United States Supreme Court, led by Chief
Justice Roger B. Taney, declared that all blacks -- slaves as well as free -- "were not and could never become citizens of
the United States." The court also declared the Missouri Compromise of 1820 unconstitutional, thus permitting slavery in all of the country's territories.
The case before the court was that of Dred Scott v. Sanford. Dred Scott,
a slave who had lived in the free state of Illinois and the free territory of Wisconsin before moving back to the slave state
of Missouri, had appealed to the Supreme Court in hopes of being granted his freedom.
Taney -- a staunch supporter of slavery and intent on protecting southerners
from northern aggression -- wrote in the Court's majority opinion that, because Scott was black, he was not a citizen and
therefore had no right to sue. The framers of the Constitution, he wrote, believed that blacks "had no rights which the white
man was bound to respect; and that the negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit.
He was bought and sold and treated as an ordinary article of merchandise and traffic, whenever profit could be made by it."
Referring to the language in
the Declaration of Independence that includes the phrase, "all men are created equal," Taney reasoned
that "it is too clear for dispute, that the enslaved African race were not intended to be included, and formed no part of
the people who framed and adopted this declaration..." Abolitionists were incensed. Although disappointed, Frederick Douglass, found a bright side to the decision and announced, "my hopes were never brighter than now." For Douglass, the decision
would bring slavery to the attention of the nation and was a step toward slavery's ultimate destruction.
On June 16, 1858, at the Illinois Republican convention in Springfield,
Abraham Lincoln commenced his bid for the U.S. Senate with a speech that would come to be known as the "House Divided" speech.
Lincoln believed that the recent Supreme Court decision on the Dred Scott
case was part of a Democratic conspiracy that would lead to the legalization of slavery in all states. Referring to the court's
decision which permitted Dred Scott to live in a free state and yet remain a slave, he said: "What Dred's Scott's master might
lawfully do with Dred Scott, in the free state of Illinois, every other master may lawfully do with any other one, or one
thousand slaves, in Illinois, or in any other free state."
Sources: Washington University in St. Louis, University Libraries (Dred
Scott Case Collection); PBS Online; Library of Congress.
Recommended Reading: Dred Scott
v. Sandford: A Brief History with Documents (The Bedford
Series in History and Culture). Description: The only
book on Dred Scott built around primary documents, this brief text examines the 1857 Supreme Court case - one of the most
controversial and notorious judicial decisions in U.S. history - in which a slave unsuccessfully sued for his freedom. In
addition to excerpts from each justice's opinion, contemporary editorials and newspaper articles, and pertinent excerpts from
the Lincoln-Douglas debates, the book includes a comprehensive introduction that provides background information on the slavery
controversy in antebellum America. Helpful
editorial features include headnotes, maps, illustrations, a chronology, questions for consideration, a selected bibliography,
and an index.
Recommended Reading: What Hath God Wrought:
The Transformation of America, 1815-1848 (Oxford History
of the United States) (Hardcover: 928
pages). Review: The newest volume in the renowned Oxford
History of the United States-- A brilliant portrait of an era that saw dramatic transformations in American life The Oxford
History of the United States is by far
the most respected multi-volume history of our nation. The series includes two Pulitzer Prize winners, two New York Times
bestsellers, and winners of the Bancroft and Parkman Prizes. Now, in What Hath God Wrought, historian Daniel Walker Howe illuminates
the period from the battle of New Orleans to the end of the Mexican-American War, an era when
the United States expanded to the Pacific
and won control over the richest part of the North American continent. Continued below…
Howe's panoramic
narrative portrays revolutionary improvements in transportation and communications that accelerated the extension of the American
empire. Railroads, canals, newspapers, and the telegraph dramatically lowered travel times and spurred the spread of information.
These innovations prompted the emergence of mass political parties and stimulated America's economic development from
an overwhelmingly rural country to a diversified economy in which commerce and industry took their place alongside agriculture.
In his story, the author weaves together political and military events with social, economic, and cultural history. He examines
the rise of Andrew Jackson and his Democratic party, but contends that John Quincy Adams and other Whigs--advocates of public
education and economic integration, defenders of the rights of Indians, women, and African-Americans--were the true prophets
of America's future. He reveals the power
of religion to shape many aspects of American life during this period, including slavery and antislavery, women's rights and
other reform movements, politics, education, and literature. Howe's story of American expansion -- Manifest Destiny -- culminates
in the bitterly controversial but brilliantly executed war waged against Mexico
to gain California and Texas for the United States. By 1848, America
had been transformed. What Hath God Wrought provides a monumental narrative of this formative period in United States history.
Recommended Reading: The Dred Scott Case: Its Significance in American Law and Politics. Description: Winner of the Pulitzer Prize
in 1979, The Dred Scott Case is a masterful examination of the most famous example of judicial failure--the case
referred to as "the most frequently overturned decision in history." On March 6, 1857, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney delivered
the Supreme Court's decision against Dred Scott, a slave who maintained he had been emancipated as a result of having lived
with his master in the free state of Illinois
and in federal territory where slavery was forbidden by the Missouri Compromise. The decision did much more than resolve the
fate of an elderly black man and his family: Dred Scott v. Sanford
was the first instance in which the Supreme Court invalidated a major piece of federal legislation. Continued below...
The decision
declared that Congress had no power to prohibit slavery in the federal territories, thereby striking a severe blow at the
legitimacy of the emerging Republican Party and intensifying the sectional conflict over slavery. This book represents a skillful review of the issues before America
on the eve of the Civil War. One-third of the book deals directly with the case itself and the Court's decision, while the
remainder puts the legal and judicial question of slavery into the broadest possible American context. Fehrenbacher discusses
the legal bases of slavery, the debate over the Constitution, and the dispute over slavery and continental expansion. He also
considers the immediate and long-range consequences of the decision. AWARDED 5 STARS by americancivilwarhistory.org
Recommended Reading:
The Impending Crisis, 1848-1861
(Paperback), by David M. Potter. Review: Professor
Potter treats an incredibly complicated and misinterpreted time period with unparalleled objectivity and insight. Potter masterfully
explains the climatic events that led to Southern secession – a greatly divided nation – and the Civil War: the social, political
and ideological conflicts; culture; American expansionism, sectionalism and popular sovereignty; economic and tariff
systems; and slavery. In other words, Potter places under the microscope the root causes
and origins of the Civil War. He conveys the subjects in easy to understand language to edify the reader's
understanding (it's not like reading some dry old history book). Delving
beyond surface meanings and interpretations, this book analyzes not only the history, but the historiography of the time period
as well. Continued below…
Professor Potter
rejects the historian's tendency to review the period with all the benefits of hindsight. He simply traces the events, allowing
the reader a step-by-step walk through time, the various views, and contemplates the interpretations of contemporaries and
other historians. Potter then moves forward with his analysis. The Impending Crisis is the absolute gold-standard of historical
writing… This simply is the book by which, not only other antebellum era books, but all history books should be judged.
Recommended Reading:
Lincoln and Chief Justice Taney: Slavery, Secession,
and the President's War Powers, by James F. Simon (Simon & Schuster). Publishers Weekly: This surprisingly taut and gripping book by NYU law professor Simon
(What Kind of Nation) examines the limits of presidential prerogative during the Civil War. Lincoln and Supreme Court Chief
Justice Roger Taney saw eye to eye on certain matters; both, for example, disliked slavery. But beginning in 1857, when Lincoln criticized Taney's decision in the Dred Scott case, the pair
began to spar. They diverged further once Lincoln became president when Taney insisted that
secession was constitutional and preferable to bloodshed, and blamed the Civil War on Lincoln.
Continued below...
In 1861, Taney
argued that Lincoln's suspension of habeas corpus was illegal. This holding was, Simon argues, "a clarion
call for the president to respect the civil liberties of American citizens." In an 1862 group of cases, Taney joined a minority opinion that Lincoln
lacked the authority to order the seizure of Southern ships. Had Taney had the chance, suggests Simon, he would have declared
the Emancipation Proclamation unconstitutional; he and Lincoln agreed that the Constitution left slavery up to individual
states, but Lincoln argued that the president's war powers
trumped states' rights. Simon's focus on Lincoln and Taney makes for a dramatic, charged narrative—and the focus on
presidential war powers makes this historical study extremely timely.
Recommended Reading: Arguing about Slavery: John Quincy Adams and the Great Battle
in the United States Congress.
Description: In the 1830s, slavery was so deeply entrenched
that it could not even be discussed in Congress, which had enacted a "gag rule" to ensure that anti-slavery petitions would
be summarily rejected. This stirring book chronicles the parliamentary battle to bring "the peculiar institution" into the
national debate, a battle that some historians have called "the Pearl Harbor of the slavery
controversy." Continued below...
The campaign to make slavery officially and respectably debatable was waged by John Quincy Adams who spent
nine years defying gags, accusations of treason, and assassination threats. In the end he made his case through a combination
of cunning and sheer endurance. Telling this story with a brilliant command of detail, Arguing About Slavery endows history
with majestic sweep, heroism, and moral weight.
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