Dred scoots biography
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End of Life
Although Scott lost the court case once the Supreme Court laid down their ruling on March 6, 1857,[3] his own and his family's freedom was eventually purchased by the sons of his initial slave owner, Peter Blow, in May of 1857.[4]
Scott went to work as a porter in St.
Louis. That he had lived with his late owner John Emerson in free territories became the basis for his case.
The process began in 1846 when Dred and his wife, Harriet, filed separate lawsuits against John’s widow, Irene Emerson.
m. It stated that, in part, slaves were not U.S. citizens per the Constitution and, therefore, Scott had no standing.
Note: Henry sided with Dredd during the court drama preceding the Civil War. According to PBS, Peters sons paid Scott's court fees.
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 1857.
This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Scott lost the first trial, but the presiding judge granted a second trial because hearsay evidence had been introduced. 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.
Despite President Lincoln’s then-more moderate positions on the issue, several states seceded within months of his inauguration in 1861, and the American Civil War began.
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Dred Scott eventually found work as a porter, but he died of tuberculosis not soon after. Chief Justice Taney, speaking for the majority, also ruled that Scott was a slave, an object of private property, and therefore subject to the Fifth Amendment prohibition against taking property from its owner "without due process."
Much to his disgrace, Taney, referred to the words in the Declaration of Independence, "all men are created equal," declaring that this was not intended for slaves of African descent.
In a move that was unusual in an era when marriages between enslaved people were often not considered valid, and families could be easily separated at will, Harriet and Dred were married in a civil service.
Dred Scott is interred in Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri. To honor his brother, Sam took on his brother’s name.
Many Southerners welcomed the decision, believing the government had no role to play in the issue.
In 1836, Scott married a slave named Harriet Robinson. National Park Service.
Louis City, Missouri, USA ; Maintained by Find a Grave.
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In 1830 the Blow family took Scott with them when they relocated to St.
Louis, Missouri. After John Emerson died, John F.A. Sandford, brother of the widow Irene Sandford Emerson, became executor of the Emerson estate.
More about the Great Emancipator
Lincoln began to act. The Scotts and the Emersons returned to Missouri in 1842. The decision declared that Congress had no power to prohibit slavery in the federal territories and that slaves were not citizens.