Premium Essay

Dred Scott Case Summary

Submitted By
Words 586
Pages 3
The Dred Scott Case Scott v. Sandford was Dred Scott’s second attempt at suing for his freedom. Not only did this case spark conflicts between the North and South, but it also was a cause for the Civil War. Even today, a court case has not received as much controversy as Scott v. Sandford (Dred Scott…Case). The controversial case of Dred Scott can be examined through Scott’s motive for suing, the harsh opinion of the Chief Justice, and the outcome and influence of the case. Scott was traveling with his master, John Emmerson, to Illinois and the Wisconsin territory as part of Emmerson’s job and after the death of Emmerson in 1843, Scott decided to sue Emmerson’s wife for his freedom in the state court. He stated that living in free soil made him a free man, but this court case did not go in his favor (Dred Scott v. Sandford). After this court case, Emmerson’s wife sold him to her brother-in-law, John …show more content…
The chief justice, Robert Taney wrote a 54-page opinion about why the decision against Scott was concluded. This opinion was completely against African-Americans having any rights whatsoever. Firstly, he said that since Scott was not a US citizen, he cannot sue in federal court and he would have lost the case anyway. Then, he wrote that even if an African-American was a citizen of an individual state, they could never become a citizen of the whole United States (US). He then went on to say that African-Americans “are not included, and were not intended to be included under the word ‘citizens’ in the Constitution” (Dred Scott…Point). He also used Judicial Review to conclude the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional because it did not have the right to abolish slavery, and by doing this destroyed a compromise that helped keep the country together. Finally he thought that the idea of popular sovereignty “lacked constitutional legitimacy” (Dred Scott v.

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Dred Scott Case Summary

...On March 6, 1857 The U.S Supreme Court issued a verdict regarding the Dread Scott case. This verdict stated that slaves were not citizen of the United States and could not sue in federal courts. Dread Scott was a negro slave born in Virginia. Peter Blow, his owner settled down in St.Louis, Missouri where he sold Scott to Dr. John Emerson: a U.S. army surgeon. In 1836 Emerson moved with Scott to Fort Snelling located in the free territory of Wisconsin. Due to the Missouri Compromise, slavery was prohibited in this territory. During that time, Scott married Harriet Robinson. In 1837, Emerson was ordered to leave and go to Jefferson Barracks Military Post by the army. He went, leaving those two behind, but still available for hire. By doing that, Emerson was...

Words: 911 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Dred Scott Case Summary

...Dred Scott had reconnected with the sons of his original owner Peter Blow. Henry and Taylor Blow gave Dred legal advice, as well as financial help, in his quest for Freedom. On April 6, 1846 the Scott family filed a suit for their freedom in county court represented by lawyers Burd and Risk. Thinking they had a solid proof case, as they had been residents of multiple free states for over a decade, the Scotts went into their trial with hope, only to be let down. The case was dismissed due to the cross examination of witness Samuel Russell, who had originally stated that he had hired the Scott family from Ms. Emerson, then later changing his testimony saying his wife made the arrangement and he did not know the terms in which the Scotts came to work for him. The...

Words: 886 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Case Summary: The Dred Scott Case

...The Dred Scott case was a highly controversial case that was brought to the Supreme Court after ten years of appeals. In this case, Dred Scott sued for his family's freedom from slavery, since their master had brought them to territories where slavery was illegal. However, the Supreme Court ruled that freed slaves and their descendants could never be emancipated, and slaves would stay slaves no matter where their master took them. This ruling contributed to the start of the Civil War by making activists angry and bringing even more light to the highly controversial topic of slavery. To begin with, activists were horrified and outraged at the Supreme Court's ruling. They were troubled by the fact that the Constitution said that "all men are...

Words: 295 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Case Summary: The Dred Scott Case

...straining to stay united despite angry conflicts over slavery, especially in the new Western territories.1 Background of the Case In 1857, Missouri slave Dred Scott's case came into this highly charged environment and before the U.S. Supreme Court. Popular sovereignty allowing states to decide the slavery issue and affirming slave owners' right to take their slaves into Western territories were key issues for the court. Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota were free states when Scott lived there with his owner. In Dred Scott v. Sandford, Scott claimed he was free since he had lived...

Words: 886 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Case Summary: Dred Scott V. US

...Dr. John Emerson took his slave, Dred Scott, from Missouri to Illinois and Minnesota where they resided from 1834 to 1838. Illinois and Minnesota are located in the territory north of 36° 30' and identified as free states under the Missouri Compromise. Scott returned to Missouri in 1838 and years later, Dr. Emerson died. Scott brought suit against Emerson’s widow in the Missouri courts, claiming his residency in free territory changed his status to free. The lower court decided in favor of Scott, but in 1852, the Missouri Supreme Court reversed the decision. Scott’s ownership was transferred to John Sanford, the brother of Mrs. Emerson’s new husband. The family filed a suit on Scott’s behalf against Sanford in the U.S. Circuit Court in Missouri, where Scott appealed to the Supreme Court on a writ of error. The ruling in the U.S. Circuit Court in Missouri was in favor of Sanford. Scott brought suit to the Supreme Court to decide on his status of citizenship and the rights he could receive from the Constitution. Issue Is a slave who was taken into free territory able to become a United States citizen and receive rights from the Constitution? Rule...

Words: 550 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Dred Scott V. Sanford Case Summary

...The Dred Scott vs. Sanford case was a very big deal. This issue dealt with a very serious subject of the time. This subject is slavery. Slavery was a very serious and important part of our history and past. Slavery was important because it helped the world realize that no matter color of skin everyone is equal. Dred Scott fought for freedom because he had already been a slave for ten years and sought to live a free life. But at the same time his master Sanford had no intention of losing one of his slaves which he had most likely paid or traded for. Why is the Court Even Hearing it?     The Court is hearing this trial because Dred Scott sued for his freedom in the Missouri Courts. And because the compromise of 1820. The treatment of Scott as property and not as a person. Facts and Background of the Case.     Dred Scott was a slave in Missouri from the years 1833 to 1843. He...

Words: 495 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Dred Scott V. Sandford Case Analysis

...course, there are exceptions, especially historical ones. The landmark 1857 case of Dred Scott vs. Sandford is an outstanding example of a Supreme Court decision that was both as horrible as it seems, as well as impactful for a large amount of people in the United States, directly. This paper will analyze the Dred Scott decision,...

Words: 2011 - Pages: 9

Premium Essay

Research

...|Cornell Notes | | |Lecture, reading/chapter/novel/article during |Name: Jaylyn Bercier | |class, power point, movies (if need to collect | | |info.) |Class: Mrs. MyerPeriod: ________ | | | | |Topic:____8TH grade history |Date: 46:20 | |_________________________________________ | | | | | | | | | | ...

Words: 1912 - Pages: 8

Premium Essay

Bruce Catton

...Bruce Catton,The Civil War. Boston: Mariner Books publishers, 2004. 400 pgs., bibliography, index, maps, illustrations. Bruce Catton was born and raised in Benzonia, he was an American historian who studied at Oberlin College in Ohio. However, he would never finish his degree, with the U.S. entry into World War I, he joined the Navy. Catton became a reporter and wrote for various newspapers after the War. He served with the war production board during World War II. Catton was editor of American Heritage Magazine from 1954 through 1959. Catton won the Pulitzer Prize for historical writing and the National Book Award in 1954. Catton was named senior editor of the magazine in 1959 and held that position until his death. He lived in New York City till the age of 78 with his wife Hazel H. Cherry. She died of a heart attack in 1969 at the age of 69. His other books included The War Lords of Washington, U.S. Grant and the American Military Tradition and Mr. Lincoln's Army just to name a few. Catton’s thesis was that, in the 1860’s the Americans thought that they were the luckiest and happiest people in the world; he believed that the civil war was the end of America’s golden age of innocence. There were two different societies that had developed in America, the South and the North. One of the differences was the institutionalization of slavery in the South. The Kansas-Nebraska Act would set up the snowball for war. All other problems and differences between the North...

Words: 1019 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Patterson Ch. 3

...Enumerated Powers 2. Implied Powers C. The Powers of the States II. Federalism in Historical Perspective A. An Indestructible Union (1789–1865) 1. The Nationalist View: McCulloch v. Maryland 2. The States’ Rights View: The Dred Scott Decision B. Dual Federalism and Laissez-Faire Capitalism (1865–1937) 1. The Fourteenth Amendment and State Discretion 2. Judicial Protection of Business 3. National Authority Prevails C. Toward National Citizenship III. Federalism Today A. Interdependency and Intergovernmental Relations B. Government Revenues and Intergovernmental Relations 1. Fiscal Federalism 2. Categorical and Block Grants C. Devolution 1. The Republican Revolution 2. Devolution, Judicial Style IV. The Public’s Influence: Setting the Boundaries of Federal-State Power Chapter Summary The foremost characteristic of the American political system is its division of authority between a national government and the states. The first U.S. government, established by the Articles of Confederation, was essentially a loose alliance of states. In establishing the basis for a more powerful national...

Words: 3398 - Pages: 14

Premium Essay

Habeas Corpus, Civil Liberties, and the War on Terror: a Walk Through History

...A Writ of Habeas Corpus as outlined in our book is that of a legal act that calls for an individual under seizure to be brought in front of a court of law for an inquiry to essentially decide if they are guilty or not of the suspected crime (Levin-Waldman, 2012). The Writ of Habeas Corpus explicitly brings up the right to contest one's arrest and imprisonment. It is also a way for the government to force an individual to come before the courts. By permitting an independent judge to analysis the legitimacy of the individual’s confinement and instruct that the detainee be freed if the circumstances are unlawful, habeas corpus functions as a safeguard against unlawful seizure, arrest, and torture. While habeas corpus has been upheld as a fundamental right of the imprisoned, this safeguard has been obstructed throughout our history, making the habeas corpus right, at times, a subject of our desire for refuge during times of emergency. The beginnings of habeas corpus can be traced to the year 1215 in the 39th article of the Magna Carta signed by King John, which says that: "No man may be restrained or confined except by the lawful declaration of his peers or by the decree of the land" (Rohde, S 2010). At first, habeas corpus was a resource used to summons an individual before the courts. However, by the turn of the 14th Century, higher courts were using the Writ of Habeas Corpus as a way of examining the surroundings of an individual’s confinement by the lower courts (Farrell, B...

Words: 4427 - Pages: 18

Premium Essay

Ricci V. Destefano

...Ricci v. DeStefano Jennifer Drab Baker College Abstract Ricci v. DeStefano is case based on reverse discrimination. The New Haven firefighters that brought this suit against the city did so on the belief that the city in its efforts to avoid litigation violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. Reverse discrimination is a term that is used widely; however, it is very difficult to move forward with this claim in a court of law. The New Haven firefighters that brought the suit had their case heard before the Supreme Court of the United States. This was not a case that the justices took lightly; they asked many difficult questions, which looked at many different aspects of Title VII. The answer from the high court is that rejecting the test scores in fear of Title VII litigation is not grounds enough to disqualify candidates that qualified for promotion. In the end, the high court upheld the firefighters claim that the city’s rejection of the exam scores violated the rights of those that qualified based on the exam. Introduction Ricci v. DeStefano, is case of reverse discrimination within the fire department of New Haven, Connecticut. This case is an illustration that affirmative action does not always result in fairness. New Haven city officials created a very comprehensive written examination for testing those fire fighters that were looking to be promoted to captain and lieutenant (Epstein, 2009). Unfortunately, the examination showed that there was disparity...

Words: 3478 - Pages: 14

Premium Essay

Government

...US/AZ Government-Pre-Test Section 1 of this examination contains 100 multiple-choice questions. Therefore, please be careful to fill in only the ovals that are preceded by numbers 1 through 100 on your answer sheet. After you have decided which of the suggested answers is best, COMPLETELY fill in the corresponding oval on the answer sheet. Give only one answer to each question. If you change an answer, be sure that the previous mark is erased completely. 1) The Preamble to the Constitution begins A) "We the People . . ." B) "Four score and seven years ago . . ." C) "When in the course of human events . . ." D) "In order to form a more perfect Union . . .” E) "These are the times that try men's souls . . .” 2) A social contract theory of government was proposed by A) Plato and Aristotle. B) Aquinas and Luther. C) Newton and the separatists. D) Locke and Hobbes. E) Plato and Luther. 3) Locke's Second Treatise on Civil Government sets out a theory of A) the divine rights of kings. B) aristocracy. C) democracy. D) republicanism. E) natural rights. 4) Indirect democracy is based on A) consensus. B) unanimity. C) the system of government used in ancient Greece. D) representation. E) "mob rule." 5) Republics are A) representative democracies. B) direct democracies. C) a hallmark of unitary governments. D) frequently found in totalitarian regimes. E) another name for states. 6) Who was the major author of the Declaration of Independence? A) George...

Words: 3950 - Pages: 16

Free Essay

Foundation Outline (Prof. William Ewald)

...[Enter Document Title]  Foundations            of the U.S.               Legal System  Prof. William Ewald  Contributors  Wim De Vlieger Suvitcha Nativivat Alasdair Henderson Ana Carolina Kliemann Alexey Kruglyakov Rafael A. Rosillo Pasquale Siciliani Paul Lanois Gloria M. Gasso Kamel Ait El Hadj Yuanyuan Zheng Ana L. Marquez Pumthan Chaichantipyuth Wenzhen Dai Penn Law Summer 2006 I.  Introduction and Historical Background    A. What the course will cover?      This  is  not  an  introductory  course.    You  are  all  lawyers;  I  shall  assume  a  good  deal  of  professional  expertise,  and  that  many  of  you  already  have  a  body  of  knowledge  about  American  law.    The task: prepare you for the coming year, give you the basic grounding that you will need  for the courses you are going to start taking in September.  For this, you need two things:    ♥ A  great  deal  of  basic  factual  information  about  how  the  courts  and  the  legal  system  function, and about basic legal concepts (and legal vocabulary);     ♥ But  more  importantly:  background  information  about  some  of  the  critical  ways in which  the American legal system is unique, and differs from legal systems elsewhere in the  world.  This is hard: often you will find that your professors or fellow‐students will make  assumptions  or  presuppose  certain  ways  of  doing  things  that  aren’t  explained  in  class.    A  large goal of this course is to explain those assumptions...

Words: 43059 - Pages: 173

Premium Essay

Con Law

...Constitutional Law II Tebbe Spring 08 4 Equality and the Constitution 4 Class 1: Slavery and the Constitution 4 1. The Original Constitution 4 2. State v. Post 4 3. Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) 4 4. Reconstruction 5 5. Post-Reconstruction Cases 6 Class 2: The Advent of American Constitutional Law: Brown 7 6. RACIAL EQUALITY 7 7. Brown I (1954) The segregation of children in public schools based solely on race violates the Equal Protection Clause. 7 2. Brown II 8 3. What was the constitutional harm in Brown? 8 4. THEORY 8 5. Subsequent School Desegregation 9 Class 3: Local Efforts to Desegregate: Parents Involved 11 6. Parents Involved 11 Class 4: Rational Basis Review: Cleburne, Romer, etc. 13 2. Tiers of Scrutiny 13 3. Beazer (1979) 13 4. Moreno (1973) 14 5. Cleburne (1985) 14 6. Romer (1996) 15 7. Nordlinger (1992) and Allegheny Pittsburgh (1989) 16 8. Lee Optical (1955) 17 Class 5: Racial Classifications and Heightened Scrutiny: Strauder, Korematsu, Loving 17 9. Heightened Scrutiny Analysis 17 10. Strauder (1880) 17 11. Korematsu (1944) 18 12. Loving (1967) 19 13. Theories Supporting Strict Scrutiny of Racial Classifications 20 14. Tiers of Scrutiny 20 15. Tiers of Scrutiny Table 21 Class 6: Facially Neutral Classifications: Washington v. Davis 21 16. Types of Discrimination (from Fall) 21 X. Disparate...

Words: 52904 - Pages: 212