Dred Scott (1799 – September 17, 1858), was a slave in the United States who sued unsuccessfully for his freedom in the famous Dred Scott v. Sandford case of 1856. His case was based on the fact that he and his wife Harriet were slaves, but had lived in states and territories where slavery was illegal, including Illinois and Wisconsin, which was then part of the Illinois Territory. The 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 that therefore Scott could not bring suit in federal court under diversity of citizenship rules. Moreover, Scott's temporary residence outside Missouri did not affect his emancipation under the Missouri Compromise, since reaching that result would deprive Scott's owner of his property.
An example of how Dred Scott story relates to events that occur in today world; includes Randy Squires, a racially discriminated former police man. He filed a lawsuit against the department, alleging racial discrimination and harassment by a fellow officer. Squires accuses Atcheson, a white-caucasian male and a lieutenant in the Environmental Crimes Unit (ECU), Warrant Squad and the Paternity Warrant Squad, of discriminating against him on the basis of the color of his skin and also harassing him while on the job. In both cases you can see that even people of high authority, like the Judge Taney in Dred’s Scott case and officers in Randy Squire’s case. Each authority figure had racism in their hearts, and let their racist feeling on others in different shapes and forms; whether be verbal, physical, or using the law to their advantage.
There are 2 biases inherited in the research of Dred Scott. The first bias includes how Congress had not asserted whether slaves were free once they set foot on Northern soil. The ruling arguably violated the Missouri Compromise because, based on the court’s logic, a white slave owner can purchase slaves in a slave state and brings his slaves to states where slavery is illegal without losing rights to the slave. The bias in that example is the court based their decision on how they felt the case should go, instead of taking a neutral view by having a compromise with the Missouri compromise of some sort. The second bias includes, how congress ruled the slaves had no claim to freedom; they were property and not citizens; they could not bring suit in federal court; and because slaves were private property. Chief Justice Roger B Taney delivered the majority opinion after Dred Scott lost his case, for being freed from slavery. He stated that ”Any person descended from black Africans, whether slave or free, is not a citizen of the United States, according to the Declaration of Independence.” The second bias made is ethnic bias, the court has ruled the black people only, are not citizens of the United States.
There are 2 difficult questions raised by the historical research of Dred Scott. Calvin C Chaffee was an abolitionist who married Irene Emerson. Irene Emerson had a slave called Dred Scott, though Chaffee did not know. When Chaffee discovered that Scott was their slave, he returned him to his original owners the blow family. The first difficult question is why Chaffee an abolitionist, didn’t free Dred Scott from being a slave? When John Emerson bought Scott as a slave, they traveled extensively in Illinois and Wisconsin Territories, where the Northwest Ordinance prohibited slavery. The Second difficult question is why didn’t Scott run from his master, and live in a different area? Since the area they lived stated that slavery was illegal.
In this essay I discovered that Dred Scott could not have obtained freedom, because he was considered property of a white American man. I learned that there racial cases today, just like in Dred Scott’s time. There were questions I wanted to know about dealt with freedom from slavery. In Dred Scott case there were many biases mainly from the court’s decision, which stated that all black people could not sue because they were citizens. I hope you enjoyed this thoughtfully written essay.
