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Person1799 – 1858

Dred Scott

Enslaved man who sued for his freedom because he had lived in a free state and a free territory; the Supreme Court rejected his claim in 1857

Born enslaved in Virginia, he was taken by his owners to Alabama and Missouri. Sold to the army surgeon John Emerson, he spent years at posts in the free state of Illinois and in Wisconsin Territory, where he married Harriet Robinson. In 1846 he and his wife sued for their freedom, a fight that lasted eleven years until the Supreme Court in 1857 rejected the claim, ruling that Black people were not citizens. Soon after the decision the family of his former owners bought and freed him; he died of tuberculosis in St. Louis the following year.

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1 related event

  1. 1
    1857Dred Scott Decisionkey figure

    The Supreme Court ruled that Black Americans could not be citizens and that Congress could not ban slavery in the territories, further narrowing the room for compromise over slavery.

Themes this person appears in

  • The American Civil War1850 – 1865

    From the Compromise of 1850 to Lincoln’s assassination — a nation divided over slavery fought four years of civil war, preserving the Union and ending slavery