Dread Scott
- Jack Hernandez
- Mar 20, 2018
- 1 min read
Dread Scott was born into slavery in 1795 in Southhampton County, Virginia. Scott was owned by John Emerson of Missouri, and after Emerson when through a couple of moves as part of his service in the United States military he took Scott from Missouri to Illinois, which was a free state and then into Wisconsin. There he met and ended up marrying Harriet Robinson. Scott attempted to buy his freedom from the Emerson’s widow who refused to sell him his freedom. Harriet and Scott filed individual lawsuits for their freedom in Missouri state court in St. Louis. In 1805 the court declared Scott free, but then the verdict was reversed in 1852 by the Missouri Supreme Court. This was a violation of Missouri’s doctrine of “once free, always free”.
Scott then received a filed suit against him in the U.S. district court due to the fact that after Emerson’s widow left Missouri, she gave control of her later husband’s estate to her brother John F.A. Sanford. Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney argued that state citizenship had nothing to do national citizenship as well as African Americans could not sue in federal court because they are not American citizens. Taney argued that Scott could not claimed be free due to the fact of his residence in Illinois or Wisconsin.
Scott later gained his freedom in 1857 after he and his wife were bought by Blow family.
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