Dred Scott Case
Dred Scott Case
The Dred Scott case (Dred Scott v. John F. A. Sanford) was decided by the U.S. Supreme Court on March 6, 1857. The case involved controversial slavery issues, and the decision had an immediate impact on the politics of the United States.
Case history
Dred Scott was a slave owned by U.S. Army surgeon John Emerson. Emerson was stationed first in Illinois , then in the Wisconsin Territory, and finally in Missouri . Scott accompanied Emerson everywhere, but the laws regarding slavery were different in each state.
After Emerson's death in Missouri in 1846, Scott decided to seek his freedom based on his residency in the free territories of Illinois and Wisconsin. Scott claimed his residency there had freed him from the status of slavery, so that he returned to Missouri as a citizen rather than a slave.
Scott began his case for freedom in 1846 in the Missouri state courts. Although a lower court declared Scott free, the Missouri Supreme Court reversed the decision. Scott then filed a new lawsuit in the federal court system. The case ultimately reached the U.S. Supreme Court, where the decision settled not only Scott's personal fate but also a divisive political dispute over slavery in the territories.
The result
When the Supreme Court reached its decision in 1857, it was unclear what the majority opinion was. Each of the nine justices wrote a separate opinion on the matter. Only one aspect of the case had a clear majority of seven to two: that a slave was personal property and could not be a citizen.
Other principles established by the various opinions included the following: (1) African Americans could not be citizens; (2) the Missouri Compromise , which prevented slavery in certain territories, was unconstitutional, because slaves were a form of property protected by the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution , so Congress had no authority to abolish slavery; and (3) an African American slave previously freed through residence in a free state returns to slavery when returning to a slave state. For Dred Scott, a resident of the slavery state of Missouri, the Supreme Court's decision meant he was still a slave.
The road to war
The Dred Scott case began to unravel the union of the United States. The Supreme Court's decision implied that slavery was not only safe where it existed but that it could be protected throughout the entire nation. This result had a significant political impact.
Democrats had enjoyed political success in both northern and southern states by supporting the idea of “popular sovereignty.” This concept meant that every new state and territory should have the power to establish its own policy towards slavery. The Dred Scott decision threatened state power to abolish slavery, damaging a successful part of the Democratic platform in the north.
Republicans, too, suddenly lost their “free-soil” platform. Free-soil politics referred to the party's stance against the expansion of slavery into new states and territories. Instead of destroying the Republican Party , however, the decision became a major focus of its campaigns in 1858 and 1860. Republican success for Abraham Lincoln in the 1860 presidential election sparked southern secession from the Union and the onset of the American Civil War (1861–65).