The country remained divided about slavery—and in fact, Scott never won his freedom. He and his family were emancipated by the descendants of his first owner, the Blow family, in He died nine months later, on September 17, Who Was Dred Scott? Grace Marra. Back to Top. Supreme Court. Taney delivered the majority opinion of the U. Supreme Court in the Dred Scott case.
Seven of the nine justices agreed that Dred Scott should remain a slave, but Taney did not stop there. He also ruled that as a slave, Dred Scott was not a citizen of the United States, and therefore had no right to bring suit in the federal courts on any matter. In addition, he declared that Scott had never been free, due to the fact that slaves were personal property; thus the Missouri Compromise of was unconstitutional, and the Federal Government had no right to prohibit slavery in the new territories.
The court appeared to be sanctioning slavery under the terms of the Constitution itself, and saying that slavery could not be outlawed or restricted within the United States.
The American public reacted very strongly to the Dred Scott Decision. Antislavery groups feared that slavery would spread unchecked. The new Republican Party, founded in to prohibit the spread of slavery, renewed their fight to gain control of Congress and the courts. Their well-planned political campaign of , coupled with divisive issues that split the Democratic Party, led to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States and South Carolina's secession from the Union. Ironically, Irene Emerson was remarried in to Calvin C.
Chaffee, a northern congressman opposed to slavery. After the Supreme Court decision, Mrs. Chaffee turned Dred and Harriet Scott and their two daughters over to Dred's old friends, the Blows, who gave the Scotts their freedom on May 26, On September 17, , Dred Scott died of tuberculosis and was buried in St. Louis at the old Weslyan Cemetery near the streets that are now Laclede and Grand.
His grave was moved in the s to Calvary Cemetery in northern St. His grave site at Calvary was marked due to the efforts of the Rev. Edward Dowling in of the Baden Historical Society. Dred Scott did not live to see the fratricidal war touched off at Fort Sumter in , but did live to gain his freedom. The ultimate result of the war, the end of slavery throughout the United States, was not something Dred Scott could have foreseen in , when he decided to sue for his freedom in St.
However, his life, his purpose and indeed his destiny was to be forever a most integral part of the destruction of an institution that when abolished, in large part because of the perseverance of Dred and Harriet Scott, freed not only a people but a nation from the grip of an unspeakable evil. Peter Blow and his family relocated first to Huntsville, Alabama, and then to St.
Louis Missouri. After Peter Blow's death, in the early s, Scott was sold to a U. Army doctor, John Emerson. In , Scott fell in love with a slave of another army doctor, year-old Harriett Robinson, and her ownership was transferred over to Dr. Emerson when they were wed. In the ensuing years, Dr. Emerson traveled to Illinois and the Wisconsin Territories, both of which prohibited slavery. When Emerson died in , Scott tried to buy freedom for himself and his family from Emerson's widow, but she refused.
Scott made history by launching a legal battle to gain his freedom. That he had lived with Dr. Emerson in free territories become the basis for his case. The process began in Scott lost in his initial suit in a local St. Louis district court, but he won in a second trial, only to have that decision overturned by the Missouri State Supreme Court. With support from local abolitionists, Scott filed another suit in federal court in , against John Sanford, the widow Emerson's brother and executor of his estate.
Supreme Court ruled that not only was Dred Scott a slave, but that as a slave, Scott had no right to bring suit in the federal courts on any matter. The court ruled that the Missouri Compromise of , which prohibited slavery in northern territories, was unconstitutional. Therefore, although Scott had lived in northern territories, he had never earned his freedom.
The Brink of Civil War The American public reacted very strongly to the ruling, fearing that this case would set precedent for all slaves, and slavery would spread unchecked. The Republican party, founded in to prohibit the spread of slavery, renewed their fight to gain control of Congress and the courts. Emerson remarried. The Blows gave the Scotts their freedom in May Just a year later, in , Dred Scott died of tuberculosis and was buried in St.
Louis, never knowing the results of his struggle for freedom. History of Dred Scott St. It is not clearly known why Scott chose this time to petition for his freedom, but historians have listed three possibilities: Dred Scott was dissatisfied because he and his family were hired out.
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