Dred Scott v Stanford – Important History Making Case
By
John C Abercrombie
Dred Scott was the center of a very important case involving slavery in America and was in part a cause of the American Civil War. The decision was shocking and has been described as “The worse case ever decided by the United States Supreme Court” and as “The courts worst self-inflected wound”.
The exact date of his birth is not known but has variously been reported as being between 1795 to 1800. This is not unusual as record keeping during this period was not exact and there was less precision and need when it came to slaves.
There is even question about his birth name, with some saying that he was born with the name of Sam, but that was changed to Etheldred, the name of a brother who had died. That name being shortened to Dred.
In any event, Dred was sold to several owners and moved several times. These events are an integral part of the history of the case and the reader should take note.
Dred was born a slave and the story starts with him being owned by Peter Blow in Alabama. When the Blow family gave up farming, they moved to St. Louis, Missouri with their 6 slaves which included Dred.
As with property, Dred Scott was sold to Dr. John Emerson a surgeon serving in the United States Army, for some reason, Scott developed a strong dislike for Emerson. As a member of the US Army, Emerson moved frequently to various parts of the growing country.
In 1836, Emerson moved to Fort Armstrong in the free state of Illinois. In 1837 Emerson moved to Fort Snelling which is in what is now Minnesota, a free territory at the time.
Here is an unusual event in that Scott met and married a slave named Harriet Robinson and was married by Lawrence Taliaferro, Harriet’s owner. The unusual part of this is that slaves were not normally given the civil ceremony of marriage presided over by a justice of the peace, which Taliaferro was.
This would play an integral part of the case to be discussed later, since slave marriages had no legal sanction, Scott’s supporters would later point to the ceremony as evidence that Scott was being treated as a free man. Nevertheless, Taliaferro transferred Harriet, now Scott to Emerson, Dred’s owner, who treated the Scotts as slaves.
In 1837 Emerson was assigned to a different location but left Scott behind, leased to others. In 1838, Emerson sent for Scott to join him in Fort Jesup, located in Louisiana. While on their way, Harriet Scott gave birth while between the free state of Illinois and the Iowa district of Wisconsin Territory.
Emerson returned to Missouri in 1840 with the Scotts. When Emerson died in 1843, his widow Irene inherited the estate and the Scotts being considered not as people, but property they were transferred to her. Since the Scotts were her property, she continued to lease them as hired slaves.
In 1846, Dred Scott offered to purchase his and his family’s freedom. However, Irene Emerson refused, and Scott was forced to resort to seek a legal remedy.
Scott filed legal suit in the St. Louis Circuit Court. His grounds were sound as in 1824, Missouri had established precedent holding that slaves freed through prolonged residence in a free state would remain free when taken back to Missouri. This doctrine was popularly known as “Once free, always free”.
The Scotts had lived for 2 years in the free states and in addition, their first-born child was born between a free state and a free territory.
The action of seeking freedom was necessary as the 2 children of the Scotts were nearing the age of 10, which was the age when slaves became more valuable and the owners frequently sold them, breaking up families.
At this time, the Scotts were living in St. Louis, Missouri and Harriet Scott was an active church goer and her pastor was an abolitionist and connected the Scotts to their first lawyer.
The case had been filed a year before it was tried in 1847 in the federal-state courthouse in St. Louis. The lawyers changed during the trial, starting with Francis B Murdoch and later Charles D Drake. Drake was a senator from Missouri. However, by the time the trial started, Drake had moved away from St. Louis and Samuel M Bay was now the Scott’s lawyer. Bay at one time was a Missouri legislator and later Attorney General.
Here the case takes an unusual turn as the court ruled against the Scotts on the basis that the ownership of the Scotts by Mrs. Emerson was hearsay and therefore not established. However, the judge set a retrial which started in January of 1850. At this trial, evidence was produced that established Emerson was indeed the owner of Scott. That jury also ruled in favor of Scott!
2 years later, Irene Emerson appealed the verdict and the Missouri Supreme Court struck down the lower court ruling. This action overturned 28 years of precedent in Missouri. Justice Hamilton R Gamble, who was later appointed governor of Missouri sharply disagreed and wrote a dissenting opinion.
In 1853, Scott sued under federal law. Irene Emerson had moved to Massachusetts and had transferred the Scott family to her brother John Sanford, a citizen of New York. While Scott, if her were free would be a citizen of Missouri. This court was heard in federal district court which ruled against Scott. The case was then appealed to the United States Supreme Court and because of a clerical error was filed as Dred Scott v Sandford, rather than Sanford. The error has never been corrected.
The court ruled that slaves had no claim to freedom or citizenship and as such did not have legal standing to bring suit in federal court.
Chief Justice Roger B Taney ruled that Scott was simply considered private property, he was subject to the 5th amendment of the United States Constitution that prohibited the taking of property from its owner “without due process”.
Taney also ruled that Congress did not have the power to regulate slavery from the territories and could not revoke a slave owner’s right to live wherever they wanted. This decision nullified the essence of the Missouri Compromise.
Taney further rules that Blacks have no rights which Whites must respect.
This decision increased national tensions between the pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions of both North and South, pushing the country towards the brink of the Civil War.
The 14th Amendment to the US Constitution puts to an end the question of citizenship stating, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and the State wherein they reside”.
It is interesting to note that the Dred Scott case was expensive considering the number of years involved etc. The suit was backed financially by Peter Blow’s Children. Peter Blow was Dred Scotts original “owner”.
Scott and his family were formally freed May 26, 1857. Scott worked as a porter in a St. Louis hotel, but his freedom while sweet was short. He died of tuberculosis in September 1858.
Coverage of the legal status raised awareness of slavery in non-slave states. The arguments of freedom were raised by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. After the Civil War sentiment rose for the Emancipation Proclamation and the passage of 3 constitutional amendments, the 13th, 14th and 15th.
The 13th Amendment to the Constitution abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment of a crime. It was adopted and proclaimed on December 18, 1865.
Interesting note: Mississippi did not get around to ratification of this amendment until 1995 but failed to make it official by notifying the U.S. Archivist. January 30, 2013, 148 years later The Office of the Federal Register was given notification of the 1995 ratification and it became official February 7th, 2013.
The 14th amendment was adopted in 1868 and grants equal protection and rights of former slaves. It provides equal protection under the law to all citizens and addresses “due process”, preventing citizens from being illegally deprived of life, liberty and property.
The 15th amendment prohibits the federal government and each state from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen’s “race, color or previous condition of servitude”.
The Dred Scott decision was a long-protracted court case and has been summarized above. Below are Books, and videos that delve deeper into the subject matter.
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The Dred Scott Decision Explained: US History Review white guy discussing
A focused video lecture explaining the Supreme Court case, Scott vs Sandford (1857), better known as the Dred Scott Decision. In this 12-minute video we look at the facts of the case, the court’s rational and decision and most importantly the immediate and important effect
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