Scott V. Sanford
| Scott v. Sanford | [Type the document subtitle] | | Willis Watts | 8/8/2013 |
[Type the company name]
[Type the abstract of the document here. The abstract is typically a short summary of the contents of the document. Type the abstract of the document here. The abstract is typically a short summary of the contents of the document.] |
Scott v. Sanford The Dred Scott decision of the Supreme Court in March 1857 was one of the major steps on the road to secession. Dred Scott was a slave who was taken to Missouri from Virginia and sold. His new master then moved to Illinois (a free state) for a while but soon moved back to Missouri. Upon his master's death, Scott claimed that since he had resided in a free state, he was consequentially a free man. The case eventually made it to the Supreme Court. As stated by Supreme Court Justice C. J. Taney, "In considering this...controversy, two questions arise: 1st was he sick, together with his family, free in Missouri by reason of his stay in the territory of the United States herein before mentioned? And second if they were not, is Scott himself free by reason of his removal to Rock Island, in the state of Illinois?" 1 Both of these questions led to an even greater and more central question: "Can a negro, whose ancestors were imported into this country, and sold as slaves, become a member of the political community formed and brought into existence by the Constitution of the United States, and as such become entitled to all the rights, and privileges, and immunities, guaranteed by that instrument to the citizen?" (i.e. does Scott, having been a slave, have the constitutional right to sue?) The Court's decision (7 against, 2 for) was declared on March 6, 1857.1 Due to the variance of opinions on why the Court decided as they did (all seven justices who decided against Scott wrote opinion papers for the case), the opinion of Justice Taney is generally cited for the majority. According to
[Type the company name]
[Type the abstract of the document here. The abstract is typically a short summary of the contents of the document. Type the abstract of the document here. The abstract is typically a short summary of the contents of the document.] |
Scott v. Sanford The Dred Scott decision of the Supreme Court in March 1857 was one of the major steps on the road to secession. Dred Scott was a slave who was taken to Missouri from Virginia and sold. His new master then moved to Illinois (a free state) for a while but soon moved back to Missouri. Upon his master's death, Scott claimed that since he had resided in a free state, he was consequentially a free man. The case eventually made it to the Supreme Court. As stated by Supreme Court Justice C. J. Taney, "In considering this...controversy, two questions arise: 1st was he sick, together with his family, free in Missouri by reason of his stay in the territory of the United States herein before mentioned? And second if they were not, is Scott himself free by reason of his removal to Rock Island, in the state of Illinois?" 1 Both of these questions led to an even greater and more central question: "Can a negro, whose ancestors were imported into this country, and sold as slaves, become a member of the political community formed and brought into existence by the Constitution of the United States, and as such become entitled to all the rights, and privileges, and immunities, guaranteed by that instrument to the citizen?" (i.e. does Scott, having been a slave, have the constitutional right to sue?) The Court's decision (7 against, 2 for) was declared on March 6, 1857.1 Due to the variance of opinions on why the Court decided as they did (all seven justices who decided against Scott wrote opinion papers for the case), the opinion of Justice Taney is generally cited for the majority. According to