In 1846, Dred Scott and his wife, Harriet, went to court in St. Louis, Missouri, to ask for their freedom. Both had lived for years in free territories where slavery was not allowed. They believed that because they had lived on free soil, they should be free. Missouri law had long followed the rule of “once free, always free,” and many enslaved people had won freedom that way. With help from friends, the Scotts began a long legal battle that would last eleven years.
Their case finally reached the United States Supreme Court in 1857. The justices needed to decide if Dred Scott was free and if Congress could limit slavery in the territories. Chief Justice Roger B. Taney wrote the Court’s opinion. The Court ruled that Dred Scott was not free. It said that people of African ancestry, whether enslaved or free, were not citizens of the United States and therefore could not sue in federal court. The Court also said that Congress had no power to ban slavery in the territories. This meant the Missouri Compromise, which had kept slavery out of parts of the West, was unconstitutional.
In his opinion, Chief Justice Taney wrote that African Americans were “so far inferior that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.” The Court ignored years of legal precedent that had recognized the freedom of enslaved people who had lived on free soil. The decision took away Dred Scott and his family's freedom. It also reinforced the system that kept people enslaved.
Later that year, Peter Blow’s sons bought Dred and Harriet Scott and gave them their freedom in St. Louis. But the Court’s decision reached far beyond one family. By ruling that no Black person could be a citizen, the Supreme Court denied freedom to an entire group of Americans and pushed the nation closer to war.
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