The Dred Scott Decision
- Date Submitted: 01/28/2010 06:29 AM
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The Dred Scott decision of the Supreme Court in March 1857 was one of the major steps
on the road to secession. Dred Scott was a slave who was taken to Missouri from Virginia
and sold. His new master then moved to Illinois (a free state) for a while but soon moved
back to Missouri. Upon his master's death, Scott claimed that since he had resided in a free
state, he was consequentially a free man. The case eventually made it to the Supreme
Court.
As stated by Supreme Court Justice C. J. Taney, "In considering this...controversy, two
questions arise: 1st.[sic] Was [Scott], together with his family, free in Missouri by reason
of his stay in the territory of the United States hereinbefore mentioned? And 2d[sic], If
they were not, is Scott himself free by reason of his removal to Rock Island, in the state of
Illinois...?" Both of these questions led to an even greater and more central question: "Can
a negro, whose ancestors were imported into this country, and sold as slaves, become a
member of the political community formed and brought into existence by the Constitution
of the United States, and as such become entitled to all the rights, and priveledges, and
immunities, guarantied by that instrument to the citizen?" (i.e. does Scott, having been a
slave, have the constitutional right to sue?)
The Court's decision (7 against, 2 for) was declared on March 6, 1857. Due to the variance
of opinions on why the Court decided as they did (all seven justices who decided against
Scott wrote opinion papers for the case), the opinion of Justice Taney is generally cited for
the majority. According to Taney, the Court decided that Scott (and hence all negro slaves
or their descendants) was not a citizen of the United States or the state of Missouri, and
thus not entitled to sue...
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