Dred Scott

This article is about a Virginia man born into slavery. For the Supreme Court case in which he was involved, see Dred Scott v. Sandford.

Dred Scott

Dred Scott (1799 – September 17, 1858), was an African-American slave in the United States who sued unsuccessfully for his freedom in the Dred Scott v. Sandford case of 1857. His case was based on the fact that although he and his wife Harriet Scott were slaves, he had lived with his master Dr. John Emerson in states and territories where slavery was illegal according to both state laws and the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, including Illinois and Minnesota (which was then part of the Wisconsin Territory). The United States Supreme Court ruled seven to two against Scott, finding that neither he, nor any person of African ancestry, could claim citizenship in the United States, and therefore Scott could not bring suit in federal court under diversity of citizenship rules. Moreover, Scott's temporary residence outside Missouri did not bring about his emancipation under the Missouri Compromise, since that would improperly deprive Scott's owner of his legal property.

Overview

The case raised the issue of a slave who had lived in a free state. Congress had not asserted whether slaves were free if they set foot upon free soil. The ruling overturned the Missouri Compromise since by the court's logic, any attempt at regulating slavery in the federal Territories deprived a slave owner of his property without due process. This enraged the abolitionist Republicans and further exacerbated sectional sentiments that led to the Civil War.

Scott had traveled with his master Dr. John Emerson, who was in the US Army and often transferred. Scott's extended stay with his master in Illinois, a free state, gave him the legal standing to make a claim for freedom, as did his extended stay at Fort Snelling in the Wisconsin Territory (now Minnesota), where slavery was also prohibited. But Scott did not file a petition for freedom while living in the free lands—perhaps because he was unaware of his rights at the time, or because he was fearful of possible repercussions. After two years, the army transferred Emerson to territory where slavery was legal: first to St. Louis, Missouri, then to Louisiana. In just over a year, the recently married Emerson summoned his slave couple. Instead of staying in the free territory of Wisconsin (now Minnesota), or going to the free state of Illinois, the two traveled nearly 1,250 miles (2000 km), apparently unaccompanied, down the Mississippi River to meet their master. Only after Emerson's death in 1843, when Emerson's widow hired out Scott to an army captain, did Scott seek freedom for himself and his wife. First he offered to buy his freedom from Emerson's widow, Irene Emerson—then living in St. Louis—for US$300, about $10,000 in current value. After she refused his request, Scott sought freedom in the St. Louis Circuit Court.

Life

Dred Scott was born into slavery in Southampton County, Virginia, in the late 1790s as property of the Peter Blow family. It appears that Scott was originally named Sam and had an older brother named Dred. However, when the brother died as a young man, Scott chose to use his brother's name. The Blow family settled near Huntsville, Alabama, where they unsuccessfully tried farming.

In 1830 the Blow family took Scott with them when they relocated to St. Louis, Missouri. They sold him to John Emerson, a doctor serving in the United States Army. Scott traveled with Dr. Emerson as he worked throughout Illinois and the Wisconsin Territories, where the Northwest Ordinance prohibited slavery.

Harriett Scott, 1857.

Marriage and family

In 1836 Dred Scott met a teen-aged girl named Harriet Robinson. Her master was Major Lawrence Taliaferro, an army officer from Virginia, who allowed them to marry and transferred his ownership of Harriet to Dr. Emerson so the couple could be together. Two years later, Harriet gave birth to their first child, Eliza. In 1840, their daughter Lizzie was born. Scott and his wife would also have two sons, but both died in infancy.

Dr. Emerson would soon meet and marry Irene Sanford, and the Emersons and Scotts returned to Missouri in 1842. When Dr. Emerson died the following year, his widow took over the estate. Scott offered to purchase his freedom from the widow Emerson, but she refused his request.

Dred Scott case

In 1846, having failed to obtain his freedom, Scott filed suit with the help of a local lawyer. The case was tried in 1847 in the federal-state courthouse in St. Louis. The judgment went against Scott, but the presiding judge granted a second trial as hearsay evidence had been introduced.

In 1850, a Missouri jury decided that Scott and his wife should be freed because of their former residence in Illinois and Wisconsin. The widowed Irene Emerson appealed. In 1852 the Missouri Supreme Court struck down the lower court ruling, saying, "Times now are not as they were when the previous decisions on this subject were made." The disheartened Scotts were returned to their master's wife.

The widow Irene Emerson married Dr. Calvin C. Caffee, who was affiliated with anti-slavery and Knownothing supporters. Under Missouri law at the time, the powers of the Emerson estate transferred to her brother, John F. A. Sanford. Because Sanford was a citizen of New York, Scott's lawyers "claimed the case should now be brought before the Federal courts, on the grounds of diverse citizenship."

With the aid of new lawyers (including Montgomery Blair), the Scotts sued in the federal court. After losing the first round, they appealed to the United States Supreme Court in Dred Scott v. Sandford. (The name is spelled 'Sandford' in the court decision due to a clerical error.) On March 6, 1857, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney delivered the majority opinion. Taney ruled that:

• Any person descended from Africans, whether slave or free, is not a citizen of the United States, according to the Constitution. {Note: Slaves were not considered citizens at the time of the Constitution but were counted as 3/5 persons. There were free blacks in several of the thirteen states when the document was written. Their number increased dramatically in the Upper South after the Revolution as numerous slaveholders manumitted their slaves.)
• The Ordinance of 1787 could not confer either freedom or citizenship within the Northwest Territory to non-white individuals.
• The provisions of the Act of 1820, known as the Missouri Compromise, were voided as a legislative act, since the act exceeded the powers of Congress, insofar as it attempted to exclude slavery and impart freedom and citizenship to non-white persons in the northern part of the Louisiana Purchase.

In effect, the Court had ruled that African-American slaves had no claim to freedom. Since they were not citizens, they had no standing to bring suit in a federal court. Since slaves were private property, the federal government could not revoke a slave owner's rights based on where he lived, thus nullifying the essence of the Missouri Compromise, which divided territories into jurisdictions either free or slave. Speaking for the majority, Taney ruled that since Scott was considered private property, he was subject to the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which prohibits taking property from its owner "without due process".

The decision heightened tensions between the North and the South, causing outrage among abolitionists, slaves and their sympathizers.

Gravesite

Following the decision, Scott and his family were returned as property to Emerson's widow. In the meantime, her brother John Sanford had been committed to an insane asylum. In 1850, Irene Sanford Emerson had remarried. Her new husband, Calvin C. Chaffee, was an abolitionist, who shortly after was elected to the US Congress. Chaffee was apparently unaware that his wife owned the most prominent slave in the United States until one month before the Supreme Court decision. By then it was too late for him to intervene, and Chaffee was severely criticized for being married to a slaveholder. He persuaded his wife Irene to return Scott to his original owners, the Blow family. By this time, they had become opponents of slavery, and as Missouri residents, they could emancipate him and his wife.

Dred Scott and his wife were formally freed by Henry Taylor Blow on May 26, 1857, less than three months after the Supreme Court decision. Scott worked as a porter in St. Louis for about 17 months before he died from tuberculosis in September 1858. He was survived by his wife Harriet, and his daughters Eliza and Lizzie Scott.

Scott was interred in Calvary Cemetery, St. Louis, Missouri. A local tradition later developed of placing Lincoln pennies on top of Scott's gravestone for good luck.

Harriet Scott was long thought to be buried near her husband, but it was recently proven that she was buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Hillsdale, Missouri. She outlived her husband by 18 years, dying on June 17, 1876. f

Legacy

• In 1997, Dred the idiot

and Harriet Scott were inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame.

Their daughter Eliza Scott married and had two sons. Lizzie never married, but following her sister's early death, she helped raise her nephews. One of Eliza's sons died young, but the other married and has descendants. Some descendants of them live in St. Louis to this day.

See also

• Slavery in the United States
• Charlotte Dupuy
• Polly Berry

Further reading

• Swain, Gwenyth (2004). Dred and Harriet Scott: A Family's Struggle for Freedom. Saint Paul, MN: Borealis Books. ISBN 9780873514831. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: checksum (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
• Shurtleff, Mark (2009). Am I Not A Man? The Dred Scott Story. Orem, UT: Valor Publishing Group. ISBN 978-1935546009. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
• Tsesis, Alexander (2008). We Shall Overcome: A History of Civil Rights and the Law. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0300118377. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)

External links

• "Dred Scott Case Collection": Official Court Documents and Supplementary Information, Washington University in St. Louis
• "Freedom Suits", African-American Life in St. Louis, 1804-1865, from the Records of the St. Louis Courts, Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, National Park Service
• Revised Dred Scott Case Collection
• Christyn Elley, "Biography of Dred Scott", Missouri State Archives
• Full text of the Dred Scott v. Sandford, Supreme Court decision Findlaw
• Dred Scott v. Sandford and related resources, Library of Congress
• "Dred Scott Chronology", Washington University in St. Louis
• Harriet Scott's grave located, Afrigeneas Forum
• Dred Scott Heritage Foundation
• Mark Shurtleff, "Am I Not A Man? The Dred Scott Story"