Dred Scott

(noun)

An African-American slave in the U.S. who unsuccessfully sued for his freedom and that of his wife and their two daughters in the Dred Scott v. Sandford case of 1857, popularly known as "the Dred Scott Decision".

Related Terms

  • apportionment
  • Fugitive Slave Act
  • manumission
  • Mason-Dixon line

(noun)

An African-American slave in the United States who unsuccessfully sued for his freedom and that of his wife and their two daughters in the Dred Scott v. Sandford case of 1857, popularly known as the "Dred Scott Decision."

Related Terms

  • apportionment
  • Fugitive Slave Act
  • manumission
  • Mason-Dixon line

Examples of Dred Scott in the following topics:

  • The Dred Scott Decision

    • In Dred Scott v.
    • Dred Scott v.
    • Sandford (1857), also known as the Dred Scott decision, was a ruling by the U.S.
    • Dred Scott was born a slave in Virginia sometime between 1795 and 1800.
    • In 1846, Dred attempted to purchase his freedom, but the Emerson family refused, prompting Scott to seek legal recourse.
  • The Politics of Slavery

    • Supreme Court cases, such as the Dred Scott decision of 1857.
    • In 1846, Dred Scott, depicted in and his wife Harriet each sued for freedom in St.
    • The court ruled that, under the Constitution, Dred Scott (and any other slave) was not a citizen who had a right to sue in the Federal courts.
    • Dred Scott was an African-American slave in the United States who unsuccessfully sued for his freedom and that of his wife and their two daughters in the Dred Scott v.
    • Sandford case of 1857, popularly known as "the Dred Scott Decision. "
  • Race and Opportunity

    • In 1857, the Supreme Court ruled in the case of Dred Scott v.
    • Dred Scott, born a slave in Virginia in 1795, had been one of the thousands forced to relocate as a result of the massive internal slave trade and taken to the slave state of Missouri.
    • When Scott returned to Missouri, he attempted to buy his freedom.
    • However, on appeal from Scott’s owner, the state Superior Court reversed the decision, and the Scotts remained slaves.
    • Dred Scott (1795–1858), plaintiff in the infamous Dred Scott v.
  • The Emergence of Abraham Lincoln

    • As the author of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, Douglas's aim in the debates was to defend his position that popular sovereignty was the best method to legislate on the expansion of slavery, regardless of the Dred Scott decision.
    • Douglas argued that, while the Dred Scott case prohibited Congress from legislating on the expansion of slavery, citizens in the territories could effectively legislate against it by refusing to create the structures and enforcements to protect slave owners' interests within the territory (this position later became known as the Freeport Doctrine).
    • Therefore, popular sovereignty and the Dred Scott decision were departures from policies of the past.
    • Addressing Douglas's accusations that he was an abolitionist, Lincoln countered that popular sovereignty and Dred Scott set dangerous precedents and that the nation could not exist perpetually as half slave and half free.
  • The Lecompton Constitution

    • Meanwhile, despite the controversial Dred Scott decision, Stephen Douglas and many other Northern Democrats continued their support of popular sovereignty as the final authority on the admission of slavery into new territories, while Republicans denounced any measure that would allow for the expansion of slavery.
    • Douglas argued that, while the Dred Scott case prohibited Congress from legislating on the expansion of slavery, citizens in the territories could effectively legislate against it via their own local governance or by refusing to reinforce infrastructure protecting slaveowners' interests within the territory.
  • From Property to Democracy

    • In some states, free men of color (though the property requirement in New York was eventually dropped for whites but not for blacks) also possessed the vote, a fact that was emphasized in Justice Curtis's dissent in Dred Scott v.
  • The Panic of 1857

    • Another event that precipitated the Panic was the Supreme Court's ruling in the Dred Scott case, which opened all western territories to slavery.
    • Soon after the Dred Scott case, it became evident that the ruling would have drastic financial and political effects as railroad securities and land values began to decrease.
  • Lincoln and Republican Victory in 1860

    • By 1860, the Democratic Party had officially split into Northern and Southern factions with tensions erupting in the aftermath of the Dred Scott decision.
    • Southern Democrats resented the Northern Democrats' continued support of popular sovereignty as the best method to determine a territory's free or slave status in spite of Dred Scott.
  • Conclusion: The Increasing Inevitability of War

    • In Dred Scott v.
    • For many Northerners, the Dred Scott decision implied that slavery could move, unhindered, into the North, whereas Southerners viewed the decision as a justification of their position.
    • The Dred Scott decision contributed to the Panic because many Northern financiers found it risky to invest in western territory with the possibility of slavery extending into new U.S. territories.
  • Laissez-Faire and the Supreme Court

    • In a series of cases starting with Dred Scott v.
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