Dred Scott's Legacy

Did you know that one of the famous court cases of all time was tried in downtown St. Louis in the Old Courthouse? This case was the Dred Scott case and is credited as one of the flames that helped fan the fire of the Civil War. This monumental decision helped to further nationwide slavery as it decided whether or not a slave when brought into free territory was automatically granted his freedom.   

Dred Scott was born into slavery in Virginia around 1799. His parents belonged to a man named Peter Blow, and at Scott’s birth he became Blow's property as well. Because of Blow’s financial difficulties Dred was eventually sold to a man named Dr. John Emerson sometime after 1830. Emerson was military surgeon and was stationed at Jefferson Barracks. 

Emerson traveled frequently with his job in the army. Scott regularly moved in and out of free territory with him. Scott met and married his wife Harriet during one of these excursions. While traveling with Emerson and Emerson's new wife, Harriet Scott gave birth to her first child, Eliza, just north of the Missouri boundary line. 

The Missouri Compromise of 1820 admitted Missouri to the union as a slave state at the same time Maine was admitted as a free state. This compromise stated that with the exception of Missouri, slavery would not be permitted in the Louisiana Territory north of the 36 degree 30’ latitude line. This compromise blurred the lines for individuals like Scott who were frequently taken in and out of free territory.

During several moves, the Emerson family hired out the Scotts while they were away. After Dr. Emerson’s death in 1843, Mrs. Emerson continued to loan out Dred and his wife Harriet. The Scotts tried to purchase their freedom from Mrs. Emerson for three hundred dollars but ended up suing her in court. In order to win their case, the Scotts has to prove that they had “become free while in Illinois or the Wisconsin territory and that they remained free when they were brought back to Missouri.” 1 Unfortunately, they lost the case.

Scott won a second trial by appealing to the Missouri Supreme Court in 1850. Mrs. Emerson also appealed and in 1852, the decision was reversed sending Dred Scott back into slavery. Scott decided to take his case to the federal level to the United States Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court of this time was not “sympathetic to slaves. Of the nine justices, seven had been appointed to by Southern presidents, and five were from slaveholding families themselves.”2  The Chief Justice Taney, the very person who would author the Dred Scott opinion, was an avid supporter of slavery and once a slave owner himself. The Court’s ruling was that blacks were not considered citizens under the Constitution and therefore Scott could not sue for his freedom. This was a tremendous blow to blacks in America, and a decision that essentially doomed many to a life of perpetual enslavement. 

The cost eventually paid for the Dred Scott decision was a national Civil War, a war that resulted in a loss of nearly 700,000 American lives.3  Scott died in 1858, but he died a free man after having his freedom purchased by Taylor Blow, a member of the family who had owned Scott many years prior. 

You can visit Dred Scott’s grave at Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis. It is a local tradition to leave pennies at the top of Scott’s headstone to honor him becoming a free man.

Dred and Harriet Scott were recently entered into the Hall of Famous Missourians earlier this year. They will be honored again on June 8, 2012 at 3:00pm at the Old Courthouse with the dedication of a small bronze statue depicting the pair.

For more information visit:

The Dred Scott Foundation: http://www.thedredscottfoundation.org/dshf/index.php?option=com_content&...

The Secretary of State’s Website: http://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/resources/africanamerican/scott/scott.asp

This is a great website to help kids understand this story better: http://www.tnhistoryforkids.org/places/dred_scott

Sources:
1. Napolitano, Andrew P. : Dred Scott’s Revenge (Nashville: Thomas Nelson) p. 59

2. Napolitano, Andrew P. : Dred Scott’s Revenge (Nashville: Thomas Nelson) p. 60

3. Napolitano, Andrew P. : Dred Scott’s Revenge (Nashville: Thomas Nelson) p. 67