Dred Scott Case

The Dred Scott Decision & History

Dred Scott was a African American born in 1795 (1800) to a slave family, in Southampton County, Virginia. Dred Scott was owned by Peter Blow and his family who later moved to Alabama then to Missouri. In the year 1832 Peter passed away Scott was then bought by an army surgeon Dr. John Emerson. In 1836 Scott fell in love with Harriet Robinson, Dr. Emerson bought her and they soon were wed. Soon after Emerson took both slaves and his family with him to the states of Illinois and Wisconsin both of which were free states at the time. John Emerson most likely didn't see this to be an issue since he did not consider himself to live in the state, only to be stationed there. It is unknown if Dred Scott knew that he

Curtis stepped in and aided Montgomery, disputing the constitutional questions raised by this case. The final decision of the case was March 6, 1857 (Dred Scott V. Sanford) as eight of the nine justices of the court system wrote out their personal thoughts and decisions on the case. Now mind you that the majority of the nine justices of the court that day were Democrats and most of them were slaveholding families, so they would have been making very biased opinions on the case as well as its circumstances. Delivering the majority opinion eleven years after the first case was initiated was Roger B. Taney (1777-1864). He stated before the court that the ruling decision was against Dred Scott, Eliza Scott, Lizzie Scott and Dred’s wife Harriet Robinson, denying them their long fight for their freedom. The votes were seven to two, meaning seven people agreed with Taney who later said that African Americans were not citizens of the United States and had no right to sue within the Federal court system. Taney also said that “They (African Americans) had no rights which the white man was bound to

Irene Emerson remarried to abolitionist Dr. Calvin Chaffee, who found that his new wife owned arguably the most famous slave of 1857, right before the final decision of the court system. At that point there was nothing he could do but as soon as the court made the last decision he immediately had Irene transfer ownership of the Scott family to Dred Scott’s previous owner's family, the Blow family. The Blow family (who had made a name/ wealth for themselves after their father's death)paid Irene an amount of 750 dollars (the wages of the last seven years that Dred Scott would have been making her if they had not been in court). the Blow family also paid off all of the legal obligations that came with the Scott family and once the Blow family retained ownership of the Scott family they granted them their freedom.

This was extremely short lived for Dred Scott who died in 1858, but he will always be an important figure in American history due to his bravery of standing against slavery while white Americans were trying to take a clear stand on the status of slavery. Unfortunately Dred Scott’s timing couldn’t have been worse but everything happens for a reason and we will always be able to respect his fight for freedom in a restricted time for African