Dred scott biography video barry

The Dred Scott decision sparked outrage in the northern states and glee in the South. The growing schism made the Civil War inevitable. Too controversial to retain the Scotts after the trial, Irene Emerson remarried and returned Dred and his family to the Blows, who granted them their freedom in May Scott and his family stayed in St.

Louis after emancipation, and he found work as a porter in a local hotel. After a little more than a year of true freedom, Scott died from tuberculosis on September 17,in St. Harriet survived her husband by 18 years and is buried in Hillsdale, Missouri. Inboth she and Dred were admitted to the St. Louis Walk of Fame. In Decembermonths before the decision was announced, a former one-term U.

Congressman from Illinois, Abraham Lincolndelivered a speech harshly criticizing the Dred Scott Case and examining its constitutional implications. Lincoln, who at this time favored halting the spread of slavery in the United States but not its immediate abolition, used the debate over slavery to propel himself to the Republican presidential nomination and then the presidency in Many Southerners welcomed the decision, believing the government had no role to dred scott biography video barry in the issue.

In contrast, many in the North attacked the judgment, believing it would inevitably lead to the spread of slavery throughout more of the country. The same month that the Scott family was freed, Frederick Douglass delivered a speech discussing the Dred Scott decision on the anniversary of the American Abolition Society, using it as a rallying cry for the anti-slavery cause.

However, as the conflict deepened, his views began to shift, influenced, in part, by the advocacy of Douglass and other abolitionistswho saw the war as a chance to strike a final blow in slavery by freeing the nearly 4 million enslaved Americans. Lincoln began to act. Then, in latehe announced a preliminary Emancipation Proclamationto take effect on January 1,to free all enslaved people in states still in rebellion against the Union.

He later fulfilled another aim of Douglass and other Black leaders by allowing Black soldiers, including the formerly enslaved, to serve in the Union Army. Lincoln also championed passage of the 13 th Amendment abolishing slavery nationwide, which was finally ratified in Decembermonths after his assassination. The Biography. We have worked as daily newspaper reporters, major national magazine editors, and as editors-in-chief of regional media publications.

Among our ranks are book authors and award-winning journalists. Our staff also works with freelance writers, researchers, and other contributors to produce the smart, compelling profiles and articles you see on our site. Harriet Tubman. Ralph Waldo Emerson. Abraham Lincoln. Susan B. Lucretia Mott. Harriet Beecher Stowe. Frederick Douglass.

Alexandre Dumas. Supreme Court ruled that African descendants were not U. It also ruled that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional. This was the last in a series of freedom suits from tothat began in Missouri courts, and were heard by lower federal district courts. Inhaving failed to purchase his freedom, Scott filed a freedom suit in St.

Louis Circuit Court. Missouri precedent, dating tohad held that slaves freed through prolonged residence in a free state or territory, where the law provided for slaves to gain freedom under such conditions, would remain free if returned to Missouri. The doctrine was known as "Once free, always free". Scott and his wife had resided for two years in free states and free territories, and his eldest daughter had been born on the Mississippi River, between a free state and a free territory.

Dred Scott was listed as the only plaintiff in the case, but his wife, Harriet, had filed separately and their cases were combined. She played a critical role, pushing him to pursue freedom on behalf of their family. She was a frequent churchgoer, and in St. Louis, her church pastor a well-known abolitionist connected the Scotts to their first lawyer.

Dred scott biography video barry

The Scott children were around the age of ten when the case was originally filed. The Scotts were worried that their daughters might be sold. The Scott v. Emerson case was tried by the state in in the federal-state courthouse in St. Scott's lawyer was originally Francis B. Murdoch and later Charles D. As more than a year elapsed from the time of the initial petition filing until the trial, Drake had moved away from St.

Louis during that time. Samuel M. Bay tried the case in court. Emerson was ruled to be hearsay. But the judge called for a retrial, which was not held until January This time, direct evidence was introduced that Emerson owned Scott, and the jury ruled in favor of Scott's freedom. Irene Emerson appealed the verdict. Inthe Missouri Supreme Court struck down the lower court ruling, arguing that, because of the free states' anti-slavery fervor was encroaching on Missouri, the state no longer had to defer to the laws of free states.

Justice Hamilton R. Gamblewho was later appointed as governor of Missouri, sharply disagreed with the majority decision and wrote a dissenting opinion. InScott again sued for his freedom, this time under federal law. Because Sanford was a citizen of New York, while Scott would be a citizen of Missouri if he were free, the Federal courts had diversity jurisdiction over the case.

The name is spelled "Sandford" in the court decision due to a clerical error. Taney delivered the majority opinion. Taney ruled, with three major issues, that:. The Court had ruled that African Americans had no claim to freedom or citizenship. Since they were not citizens, they did not possess the legal standing to bring suit in a federal court.

As slaves were private property, Congress did not have the power to regulate slavery in the territories and could not revoke a slave owner's rights based on where he lived. This decision nullified the essence of the Missouri Compromise, which divided territories into jurisdictions either free or slave. Speaking for the majority, Taney ruled that because Scott was considered the private property of his owners, he was subject to the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitutionprohibiting the taking of property from its owner "without due process".

Rather than settling issues, as Taney had hoped, the court's ruling in the Scott case increased tensions between pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions in both North and South, further pushing the country toward the brink of civil war. Ultimately after the Civil Waron July 9,the 14th Amendment to the Constitution settled the issue of Black citizenship via Section 1 of that Amendment: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside Scott's dred scott biography video barry suit before the state courts was backed financially by Peter Blow's adult children, who had turned against slavery in the decade since they sold Dred Scott.

Members of the Blow family signed as security for Scott's legal fees and secured the services of local lawyers. While the case was pending, the St. Louis County sheriff held these payments in escrow and leased Scott out for fees. After the Missouri Supreme Court decision ruled against the Scotts, the Blow family concluded that the case was hopeless and decided that they could no longer pay Scott's legal fees.

Roswell Field agreed to represent Scott pro bono before the federal courts. Scott was represented before the U. Supreme Court by Montgomery Blair. Assisting Blair was attorney George Curtis. InIrene Emerson remarried and moved to Springfield, Massachusetts. Her new husband, Calvin C. Chaffeewas an abolitionist. He was elected to the U.

Congress in and fiercely attacked by pro-slavery newspapers for his apparent hypocrisy in owning slaves. Given the complicated facts of the Dred Scott case, some observers on both sides raised suspicions of collusion to create a test case. Abolitionist newspapers charged that slaveholders colluded to name a New Yorker as defendant, while pro-slavery newspapers charged collusion on the abolitionist side.

About a century later, a historian established that John Sanford never legally owned Dred Scott, nor did he serve as executor of Dr. Emerson's will. After the U. Supreme Court ruling, Roswell Field advised Dr. Chaffee that Mrs. Chaffee had full powers over Scott. Emerson in the dred scott biography video barry state lawsuit before she married Chaffee.

Following the ruling, the Chaffees deeded the Scott family to Republican Congressman Taylor Blowwho manumitted them on May 26, Scott worked as a porter in a St. Louis hotel, but his freedom was short-lived; he died from tuberculosis in September Scott was originally interred in Wesleyan Cemetery in St. When this cemetery was closed nine years later, Taylor Blow transferred Scott's coffin to an unmarked plot in the nearby Catholic Calvary CemeterySt.

Louis, which permitted burial of non-Catholic slaves by Catholic owners. She outlived her husband by 18 years, dying on June 17, Their other daughter, Lizzie, never married but, following Eliza's early death, helped raise Eliza's sons Lizzie's nephews. One of Eliza's sons died young, but the other married and has descendants, some of whom still live in St.

Louis as of[ 25 ] including Lynne M. Jackson, Scott's great-great-granddaughter, who led the successful effort to install a new towering memorial at Dred Scott's grave at Calvary Cemetery on September 30, The newspaper coverage of the court ruling, and the year legal battle raised awareness of slavery in non-slave states. The arguments for freedom were later used by U.

President Abraham Lincoln. The words of the decision built popular opinion and voter sentiment for his Emancipation Proclamation and the three constitutional amendments ratified shortly after the Civil War: The Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments, abolishing slavery, granting former slaves' citizenship, and conferring citizenship to anyone born in the United States and "subject to the jurisdiction thereof" excluding subjects to a foreign power such as children of foreign ambassadors.

Shelia P. Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikidata item. African-American plaintiff in freedom suit c. For the Supreme Court decision, see Dred Scott v. For other uses, see Dred Scott disambiguation. Scott c. Southampton County, VirginiaU.

Louis, MissouriU. Harriet Robinson. By country or region. Opposition and resistance. Abolitionism U. Life [ edit ]. Dred Scott v. Sandford [ edit ]. Main article: Dred Scott v. Summary [ edit ]. In detail [ edit ]. Abolitionist aid to Scott's case [ edit ]. Freedom [ edit ]. Prelude to Emancipation Proclamation [ edit ]. Legacy [ edit ].

Accounts of Scott's life [ edit ]. See also [ edit ]. Notes [ edit ]. References [ edit ]. Oxford University Press, US. ISBN