Dred+Scott



Dred Scott was a slave from Missouri. In 1834 his owner took him north of the Missouri Compromise line for four years where they had lived in free territory in Illinois and Wisconsin. Four years later they then returned to Missouri where Scott's owner had died. Since he had lived in a free territory for so long Scott claimed to be a free person. On March 6, 1857, Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B. Taney handed down the decision. The Court ruled that slaves did not have the rights of citizens. Therefore the court said that Dred Scott had no right to freedom, because he first became a slave in Missouri, which was a slave state. Finally the Court voted that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional. Congress had no right to prohibit slavery in any part of the territories. This would be going against the Fifth Amendment which was slaveholders’ had the right to own property.

Information provided by: McDougal, Holt. //The Americans//. Evanston: Gerald A. Danzer, 2012. Print. Picture provided by: //The Supreme Court//. PBS, n.d. Web. 2 Sept. 2013. .