The Dredd Scott

The Dredd Scott case involved a landmark decision in the history of the Supreme Court,   in the history of


  the United States the decision in this case was one of the most damaging statements in the history of the


  Supreme Court, involving the citizenship of a black person in the United States, and the


  constitutionality of the Missouri Compromise in 1820.   The history of a black man named Dredd Scott


  states that he was a slave   originally owed by a family by the name of Blow, which ended up selling him


  in 1833 to an army surgeon by the name of Dr. John Emerson of St. Luis.   Due to his involvement as an


  army surgeon, Emerson was transferred to numerous places such as Rock Island, Illinois, Fort Snelling in


  the Wisconsin Territory then back to St. Louis in the end of 1838.   Scott had accompanied Emerson


  throughout this period.   Emerson had taken Scott to places that forbidden slavery according to the


  Missouri Compromise of 1820 and Scott was even allowed to marry during this!


  time period on free territory, his companion being a woman who was also a slave owned by Emerson.   As


  Emerson and Scott had returned to St. Louis, a territory where slavery was legal, Emerson died and Scott


  was left to his   widow, who eventually gave Scott back to his original owners, the Blows.   Henry Blow,


  Scott’s original master, was opposed to the extension of slavery into the Western territories, and Blow


  lent Scott’s residence on free soil in Illinois and Wisconsin Territory had made him a free man.   In


  1846, Dredd Scott brought suit in the state court on the grounds that residence in a free territory


  released him from slavery.   A lower state court had found to be in favor of Scott, but in 1852, the


  Supreme Court of Missouri ruled that upon his return to territory where slavery was legal, the status of


  slavery was...