Why is dred scott vs sanford important

Supreme Court. This appeal was more expensive than the Blows could afford, but Scott received additional help from a lawyer, Montgomery Blair, who agreed to take the case for free. Blair was not an abolitionist, but he supported the Republican Party and opposed the spread of slavery into the Western territories or Northern states.

In the U. Supreme Court was heavily proslavery and pro-Democratic. Taney authored the majority opinion of the case, a decision enthusiastically supported and probably influenced by President-elect James Buchanan. In his statement Taney made two significant rulings. First, he stated that blacks could never be citizens, even if free, and thus could not sue in federal courts.

Second, he determined that Congress lacked the power to prohibit slavery in any federal territories, making significant portions of the Missouri Compromise of unconstitutional. Read the full original text of the Dred Scott decision.

Instead of removing slavery as a major political debate, the decision further exacerbated sectional tensions and became a key issue in the and political campaigns. Dred Scott died from tuberculosis on September 17, , not living to see the end of slavery and the invalidation of his Supreme Court case. But soon after the decision, it became public knowledge that his current owner, Irene Emerson, was also the wife of an abolitionist congressman from Massachusetts, Dr.

Calvin C. Chaffee, who claimed to have no knowledge of owning Scott, transferred ownership of Scott, his wife Harriet Scott, and their two daughters to the Blows, and they freed him on May 26, Scott lived just over a year of his life in freedom. Since then, Dred Scott v. Sandford has become infamous as one of the most reviled legal decisions made by the U. Supreme Court, but the ruling cannot be untangled from the prevailing political, economic, and social atmosphere of the United States in the lates.

While Dred Scott did not directly cause the Civil War, the case cannot be discounted as a major tailwind on the path toward war. Do you find this information helpful?

A small donation would help us keep this accessible to all. Forego a bottle of soda and donate its cost to us for the information you just learned, and feel good about helping to make it available to everyone! Jager, S. The Dred Scott Decision, Previous Previous post: Margaret Louise Carter Next Next post: The Plessy v. Ferguson Decision. The Dred Scott decision came just two days after President James Buchanan took office, and it set the tone for his controversial term that led to the Civil War.

The court also declared the Missouri Compromise of to be unconstitutional. And it said that Congress did not have the authority to prohibit slavery in the territories.

The decision was celebrated in the South and by slavery supporters. There was outrage in the North and among abolitionists. One person who was publicly upset with the Dred Scott decision was Abraham Lincoln, who was a rising figure in the newly formed Republican Party.

The case was a focal point of the famous debates between Lincoln and Stephen Douglas in The decision also made the Republican Party a national force, and led to the division of the Democratic Party during the presidential elections.