About

Born into slavery in Virginia, Scott was later taken to Missouri, a state that allowed enslaved individuals to sue for their freedom under certain circumstances. Scott, along with his wife and children, filed a lawsuit claiming they should be free because they had lived in a free territory and state. The case, known as Dred Scott v. Sandford, eventually reached the Supreme Court, where Chief Justice Roger B. Taney delivered the majority opinion in March 1857. The Court's decision was highly controversial and further divided the nation on the issue of slavery. Taney declared that African Americans - whether free or enslaved - were not and could not be citizens of the United States, and therefore could not sue in federal court. Additionally, the Court ruled that Congress had no power to regulate slavery in the territories, effectively nullifying the Missouri Compromise of 1820. The Dred Scott decision further exacerbated tensions between slaveholding states and free states, and is often cited as one of the key events leading to the American Civil War. The ruling was widely criticized by abolitionists and sparked heated public debates, with many viewing it as a grave injustice. It took the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1865 to fully abolish slavery in the country. Despite the controversial nature of the case, Dred Scott himself did not live to see the ultimate outcome. He died of tuberculosis in 1858, over a year before the Civil War broke out. Nonetheless, his name became synonymous with the fight against slavery and his case remains significant in American legal and political history.