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was a United States Supreme Court landmark decision. In March 1857 the court ruled that negroes descended from slaves, whether now free or slave, were not citizens of the United States. Because they were not citizens they could not sue in a Federal court. Dred Scott had sued in federal court. He claimed he was free because he had lived in free territory. He lost his case in a ruling that has been condemned by many as the Supreme Court's worst decision.

The Dred Scott case of the U.S. Supreme Court, which denied Scott his freedom by ruling that negro-slave descendants were not U.S. citizens, was the end of years of legal cases during 1846-1857, in lower federal district court and Missouri courts which had granted Dred Scott freedom for about 2 years, until over.

Dr. John Emerson was a surgeon serving in the U.S. Army. In 1833 he purchased Dred Scott, a slave in Missouri. The same year he moved to Illinois taking Scott with him. Emerson was sent to a fort in the Wisconsin Territory. Scott, his slave, went with him. While living in the Wisconsin territory (now Minnesota) Scott met and married Harriet Robinson. She was owned by a justice of the peace. After marrying Scott, Emerson became her owner as well. Emerson returned to Missouri taking his slaves with him. In 1843 Emerson died in Missouri. Scott and his family were left to Emerson's wife, Eliza Sandford.

Supreme Court Case

In 1846 Scott sued for his freedom in court. Helped by Abolitionist lawyers, he claimed that he was free because he had lived in free states for a long time. The defense claimed that Dr. Emerson was forced to move to the Wisconsin territory because he served with the United States Army. He should be able to keep his property. The presiding judge, Roger B. Taney, decided that Scott was not free and he did not have a right to sue. Furthermore, he stated that Congress could not make laws prohibiting slavery in United States territories. This was the majority opinion with seven out of nine Justices agreeing.

The opinion of the dissenting justices was that, at the time the Constitution was ratified, African Americans were already considered citizens in several states.

The ruling was a major setback to the anti-slavery movement. The Republicans condemned the ruling. In effect, it allowed slavery in the northern states. It became a central issue in slavery debates in the US. In 1868 the Fourteenth Amendment overturned the Dred Scott decision. It gave all persons born or naturalized in the United States citizenship regardless of their color.

Soon after the court decision of 1857 Eliza Sandford sold Scott and his family to Taylor Blow. Blow (one of Scott's previous owners) then granted Scott and his family their freedom. Scott died a free man on September 17, 1858. He did not live long enough to see African Americans become United States citizens.

Other Supreme Course Cases Later Overturned by US Constitution Amendments

Dred Scott is one of only four decisions by the Supreme Court that were overturned by an amendment to the United States Constitution. The other three are:

Arguably, one more case could be added:

Minor v. Happersett, which was indirectly overturned by the Nineteenth Amendment. In 1875, Virginia Minor, in trying to gain the right to vote for women, argued the Fourteenth Amendment gave citizens the right to vote. The Court said it did not. The passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, 45 years later, gave women the right to vote. However, Minor v. Happersett was still cited as case law into the 1960s in other right to vote issues.

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was a United States Supreme Court landmark decision. In March 1857 the court ruled that negroes descended from slaves, whether now free or slave, were not citizens of the United States. Because they were not citizens they could not sue in a Federal court. Dred Scott had sued in federal court.

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The Dred Scott Case Part 1: Prelude to "Justice"
The Dred Scott case was not a cut-and-dried, easy-to-explain affair; rather, it was a long and drawn-out process that ended long after the Supreme Court's decision was announced. began on April 6, 1846, when Scott filed suit in Missouri state court. He was in Missouri, still enslaved, and belonging to the wife of Dr. John Emerson, who had bought Scott originally in the early 1830s. Emerson had died in 1843 and had left Scott as a possession of his wife. Before that, though, Scott had traveled with the Emersons around Illinois and Wisconsin, two territories that didn't allow slavery. In fact, the Emersons and Scott had lived in both territories for a period of time. When the lawsuit was filed, however, Mrs. Emerson and Scott were living in Missouri. This fact would be a key factor in the ultimate decision of the U.S. Supreme Court.

It

Scott filed suit against Mrs. Emerson, claiming that she had beaten him severely and imprisoned him for several hours. He also claimed that he was due his freedom because he had lived in Illinois and Wisconsin Territories. He had good reason to think that this second part of his lawsuit would succeed because the Missouri Supreme Court had gone on record as declaring free several slaves who had traveled with masters to free states. One such case was Rachel v. Walker, in 1836. Rachel, a slave who had been taken by her master, Mr. Walker, to Wisconsin Territory, claimed that the fact that she had lived in a "free" state meant that she was herself free. The Missouri Supreme Court had agreed.

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The Dred Scott Case Part 1: Prelude to "Justice" The Dred Scott case was not a cut-and-dried, easy-to-explain affair; rather, it was a long and drawn-out process that ended long after the Supreme Court's decision was announced. began on April 6, 1846, when Scott filed suit in Missouri state court.

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A law called the Missouri Compromise of 1820 ruled out slavery in the United States north of Missouri's southern border. The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 made it possible again. This angered abolitionists, or people who wanted to end slavery. It led to violence in Kansas, where people fought and killed each other over the issue of slavery. The fighting brought the United States closer to the American Civil War.

The Kansas-Nebraska Act created Kansas and...

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A law called the Missouri Compromise of 1820 ruled out slavery in the United States north of Missouri's southern border. The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 made it possible again. This angered abolitionists, or people who wanted to end slavery. It led to violence in Kansas, where people fought and killed each other over the issue of slavery.

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Reports that Senator Stephen Douglas wanted to grant popular sovereignty to Kansas and Nebraska, and defines popular sovereignty, in this context, as allowing the white males of the territories to vote on whether or not to be a free state or a slave state.

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Henry Clay, who authored the Missouri Compromise as well, proposed a compromise. For the free states, Clay suggested that California be admitted as a free state and that the slave trade (but not slavery) become illegal in the District of Columbia. For the slave states, he suggested that the territories of New Mexico and Utah be open to slavery and that the Fugitive Slave Act become stricter.

The Congress discussed the proposal for several months. Senators Daniel Webster and Stephen A. Douglas helped Clay convince the other senators to approve the plan. Finally the Congress passed the laws that are known as the Compromise of 1850. It was hoped that the agreement would bring peace over the issue of slavery to the country. However, it only postponed the American Civil War for 10 years.

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Henry Clay, who authored the Missouri Compromise as well, proposed a compromise. For the free states, Clay suggested that California be admitted as a free state and that the slave trade (but not slavery) become illegal in the District of Columbia.

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The Fugitive Slave Acts were two federal laws that concerned runaway slaves in the United States. The two acts were passed in 1793 and in 1850. They required federal involvement in catching runaway slaves in Northern States. The laws were designed to protect Southern slave owners. They required those states and jurisdictions to help in the capture and delivery of fugitive slaves. The laws were very unpopular in the North. They caused a great deal of resentment in the years leading up to the American Civil War.

Background

Slavery in America began in the English colony of Jamestown in 1619. It started with the purchase of 20 Africans from an English warship named the White Lyon. The Colonists in the Virginia Colony bought the contracts of the Africans as indentured servants. Not long after this it became a custom to hold slaves for life in the colonies. During the 17th and 18th centuries, slaves were used to raise crops of tobacco and food crops. After the invention of the cotton gin in 1793, cotton became the most important crop. At this point slavery became a critical part of the South's economy.

The issue of slavery caused difficulties for the United States almost from its beginning as a country. The framers of the Constitution used ambiguous language regarding the holding of slaves. Neither the word "slave" or "slavery" were used in the Constitution. The problem was in creating a democracy that ensured its citizens freedom while keeping a considerable part of the population in slavery without any freedoms.

In the United States, up to the 1860s, slaves and indentured servants were treated as personal property. They were subject to the property laws of the individual states. At first, most of the laws concerned indentured servants. But the laws began to differentiate between indentured servants and slaves around the middle of the 17th century. They also began to differentiate between races. People of African descent began to be held as slaves for life.

Men and women slaves were generally treated the same under most state laws. However, some states had laws that applied only to women slaves. For example, Virginia passed laws punishing women who had children by their masters. They also confirmed the slave status of any children born of a "Negro or mulatto women". Great Britain had a structured system whereby children claimed their lineage through their father. This also applied to illegitimate children (parents were not married). Virginia was the first colony to change this. Slave children were considered the same race and status as the mother, even if the child was fathered by a white man. Laws concerning abuse did not apply to black and Indian women. A slave woman could not defend herself against the attack by a white person. If she did, she was subject to beatings. While it was illegal to have relations with a slave woman, the laws were not usually enforced. This system increased the wealth of slave owners. They did not have to buy slaves if they could breed their own.

Slaves, whether born into slavery or purchased as a slave, had no legal rights. The United States Supreme Court decision Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) confirmed that slaves were not citizens of the United States nor of any state they reside in. In 1868 the Fourteenth Amendment overturned the Dred Scott decision.

Early pro-slavery legislation

Northwest Ordinance 1787

The Northwest Ordinance (1787) was an act of the Congress of the Confederation of the United States (before the United States Constitution). It created the Northwest Territory, the first organized territory of the United States. The Ordinance provided that the territory would be formed into "not less than three nor more than five States".

The territory was made up of lands beyond the Appalachian Mountains. It was south of British North America and the Great Lakes. It was north of the Ohio River. Article VI of the Northwest Ordinance prohibited slavery in the new territory. However, it contained a provision that any fugitive slaves caught in the territory would be returned to their owners. It also did not place any restrictions on slavery within any new states formed from the Northwest Territory. Southerners had no problems with the ban on slavery. They thought that most of the new settlers would come from Southern states. Once a state was formed, the former Southerners would vote to allow slavery. However, none of the states formed from the Northwest Territory ended up allowing slavery.

U.S. Constitution 1789

When the United States Constitution replaced the Articles of Confederation in 1789, Article Four of the United States Constitution contained the Fugitive Slave Clause. It states:

No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour, but shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due.

Fugitive slave acts

Fugitive Slave Act 1793

While Article IV, Section 2 of the United States Constitution did guarantee the right of slave owners to reclaim fugitive slaves. However, it did not set up the legal mechanism. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 passed by the second Congress added that mechanism. It authorized the arrest of runaway slaves and gave any magistrate of a town, city or county to rule on the arrest. The slave hunter only had to state the person captured was a runaway slave. No proof was required and there was no trial. It added a fine of $500 to any person who helped a runaway slave. It was passed in response to the rise of abolitionism in the North and also to the Underground Railroad that was set up to help slaves escape the South.

Fugitive Slave Act 1850

The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was a controversial part of the Compromise of 1850. The 1850 slave law added penalties for officials who did not arrest alleged runaway slaves. It fined them $1,000. Any law enforcement official was required to arrest anyone suspected of being a runaway slave. All that was required was a persons sworn testimony of ownership. As before there was no trial and the suspect could not testify on their own behalf. Anyone who provided food or shelter to any suspected runaway slave was subject to six months in prison and a fine of $1,000. An officer who captured a runaway slave would get a bonus or a promotion. The 1850 law provided for special commissioners to decide if the alleged fugitive was to be returned to slavery. He received $10 if the fugitive was returned, but only $5 if the fugitive was freed. This amounted to a legal form of bribery. This caused a large number of free blacks to be sent into slavery.

Results of the slave law

The 1850 Fugitive Slave Law caused outrage in the Northern States. It caused thousands of Northerners to be convinced slavery should not be allowed in the western territories. Eight states in the North passed "personal liberty" laws. These prevented any official from helping to return a runaway slave. Southerners regarded these laws as being illegal attempts to prevent the return of their slaves. In the North, free black communities provided runaway slaves with sanctuary and hid them from the hired kidnappers searching for them. About 15,000 free blacks emigrated to Canada, the Caribbean and Africa after the 1850 law was passed. Thousands of others including free blacks were not so lucky and were sent South.

In 1851, a gun battle broke out between abolitionists and slave catchers in Christiana, Pennsylvania. In Wisconsin a fugitive named Joshua Glover was forcibly freed from a jail. In Boston, a mob tried to free a fugitive named Anthony Burns. It took 22 companies of state troopers to stop them. The Southern states were completely convinced the North would not follow the slave laws.

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Enslavement in the 13 colonies, 1770. Numbers show actual and estimated slave population by colony. Colors show the slave population as a percentage of each colony's total population. Boundaries shown are based on 1860 state boundaries, not those of 1770 colonies.

Rufus King's failed resolution to re-implement the slavery prohibition in the Ordinance of 1784.

A Ride for Liberty-The Fugitive Slaves (c. 1862) by Eastman Johnson Brooklyn Museum

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The Fugitive Slave Acts were two federal laws that concerned runaway slaves in the United States. The two acts were passed in 1793 and in 1850. They required federal involvement in catching runaway slaves in Northern States. The laws were designed to protect Southern slave owners.

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Southern states soon demanded stronger laws to protect slavery. In 1850 Congress passed the second Fugitive Slave Act. The new act set severe penalties for anyone who helped an enslaved person escape from slavery. It also gave people called special commissioners the power to order the return of freedom seekers to their owners. Freedom seekers had no voice in their own cases.

The main effect of this act was to strengthen the abolitionist movement. Eventually the disagreement over slavery led to the American Civil War. During the war, the government sometimes enforced the Fugitive Slave acts. In 1864 Congress finally did away with the acts.

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Southern states soon demanded stronger laws to protect slavery. In 1850 Congress passed the second Fugitive Slave Act. The new act set severe penalties for anyone who helped an enslaved person escape from slavery. It also gave people called special commissioners the power to order the return of freedom seekers to their owners.

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The Missouri Compromise, also called the Compromise of 1820, was a plan proposed by Henry Clay of the U.S. state of Kentucky. It was signed by President James Monroe and passed in 1820. The agreement was between the pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions in the United States Congress, involving primarily the regulation of slavery in the western territories. It admitted Missouri as a slave state to please the South and it also admitted Maine as a free state to please the North. It kept the balance of power in the United States Senate between the free states and slave states. The plan also called for slavery to be banned from the Louisiana Territory north of the parallel 36 degrees 30' north (also known as the Missouri Compromise Line), except within the boundaries of the proposed state of Missouri.

Prior to the agreement, the House of Representatives had refused to accept this compromise and a conference committee was appointed. The United States Senate refused to concur in the amendment, and the whole measure was lost.

During the following session (1819-1820), the House passed a similar bill with an amendment, introduced on January 26, 1820 by John W. Taylor of New York, allowing Missouri into the union as a slave state. The question had been complicated by the admission in December of Alabama, a slave state, making the number of slave and free states equal. In addition, there was a bill in passage through the House (January 3, 1820) to admit Maine as a free state.

The Senate decided to connect the two measures. It passed a bill for the admission of Maine with an amendment enabling the people of Missouri to form a state constitution. Before the bill was returned to the House, a second amendment was adopted on the motion of Jesse B. Thomas of Illinois, excluding slavery from the Missouri Territory north of the parallel 36°30' north (the southern boundary of Missouri), except within the limits of the proposed state of Missouri.

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The United States in 1819, the year before the Missouri Compromise prohibited slavery in the unorganized territory of the Great Plains (upper dark green) and permitted it in Missouri (yellow) and the Arkansas Territory (lower blue area)

Representative James Tallmadge Jr., the author of the antislavery amendment to Missouri statehood

Thomas Jefferson: The Missouri crisis roused Thomas Jefferson "like a fire bell in the night".

New York Governor DeWitt Clinton

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The Missouri Compromise, also called the Compromise of 1820, was a plan proposed by Henry Clay of the U.S. state of Kentucky. It was signed by President James Monroe and passed in 1820. The agreement was between the pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions in the United States Congress, involving primarily the regulation of slavery in the western territories.

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Research using the following link.

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The Missouri Compromise was an agreement passed by the U.S. Congress in 1820. It allowed Missouri to become the 24th state in the United States. It also began the conflict over the spread of slavery that led to the American Civil War.

In the early 1800s Missouri was still a territory. In 1818 it applied to Congress to become a state. At that time there were 11 free states and 11 slave states in the United States. The admission of Missouri as a slave state would upset the balance of states.

In 1819 Maine also applied to be a state. Henry Clay, a member of Congress from Kentucky, then came up with a compromise. Congress agreed to admit Maine as a free state and Missouri as a slave state. The compromise also banned slavery from any future territories or states north of Missouri's southern border.

The Missouri Compromise stayed in effect for more than 30 years. It was broken by the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which allowed slavery north of the Missouri Compromise line.

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The Missouri Compromise was an agreement passed by the U.S. Congress in 1820. It allowed Missouri to become the 24th state in the United States. It also began the conflict over the spread of slavery that led to the American Civil War. In the early 1800s Missouri was still a territory.

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