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Compare And Contrast Slavery And The Missouri Compromise

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The Missouri Compromise was created to maintain the fragile balance between slave and free states. Its purpose was put to the test when a slave, Dred Scott, filed a lawsuit against his late owner’s widow, Mrs. Emerson, for false imprisonment. He was originally purchased in Missouri and then brought to Illinois to live and work. Under the Missouri Compromise slavery was allowed in Missouri but prohibited in Illinois. Dred Scott believed that his residency in Illinois made him a free citizen. His case reached the U.S. Supreme Court in 1857 as Dred Scott v. Sandford. The verdict declared Scott a slave and the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional. In a 7-2 vote, Dred Scott v. Sandford was decided because of the historical context and the Fifth Amendment.
Dred Scott v. Sandford occurred while tensions over the slavery debate were high. Over the course of eleven years and five trials, sectional tensions increased until America was on the brink of a Civil War. The Southerners ardently supported slavery as it was an economic asset for their plantations. The Northerners, influenced by the abolitionist movement, strongly opposed the idea of slavery, stating that it was morally wrong. Like most Americans of the time, the judges themselves held strong opinions about slavery which …show more content…

Taney declared the Missouri Compromise to be unconstitutional because of the 5th Amendment. The agreement banned slavery in the Louisiana Territory north of the 36° 30’ Missouri Compromise Line. Chief Justice Taney believed that denying citizens their property in a certain area of the U.S. was not within the Constitution. The Fifth Amendment states that “no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, and property, without due process of law” (“Dred Scott v. Sandford.” Landmark Cases). Since Emerson had not committed any crime, to take his property away would not be due process. The court ruled that denying a citizen his property in a specific area of America was

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1.) How did the Dread Scott decision change the political landscape of the United States? How did it gainsay the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and the 1850 Compromise? The Dread Scott decision change the political landscape because it impacted on the political party system. It shattered the regional peace and party unity.

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550 Words | 3 Pages

Summary of Source The editorial discloses the power that the Court adheres to and whether it should be accountable for the decision making of fugitive slaves. The writer had discussed that in no way did the verdict of the Dred Scott case follow an act of law, but was merely “nullity.” During the settlement, they decided that since Dred Scott’s master had brought him on free land in Missouri or of the United States without having a citizenship, which resulted in him having no case. It continues on to say that the jurisdiction of the case was influenced by opinion, which did not involve any legalities.

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961 Words | 4 Pages

Congressional policy that prohibited slavery in certain territories was in violation of the Fifth Amendment since slaves were

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328 Words | 2 Pages

The Missouri Compromise was a significant turning point in United States history, it lead to many discussions on slaves civil rights, the Dred Scott decision, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act. In a sense, the Missouri Compromise impaired the unity of the United States and was the original fuel for the civil war. As states were expanding westward after the Louisiana Purchase, so was the debate of slavery. The North did not rely on slavery because it was unprofitable after the American Revolution.

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509 Words | 3 Pages

In 1857 the Dred Scott case was pulled into the supreme court. Dred Scott was claiming that even though he was a slave, He had been in a free country long enough to be a free citizen for the United States. The Supreme court ruled that blacks, with ancestors that were imported to become slaves weren’t aren’t able to become free american citizens. Therefore they weren’t able to appeal to a jury or able to to sue in federal court.

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Leslie Chihuahua United States History to 1877 11/13/2015 11:00-11:50 AM Missouri Compromise was an agreement from the House of Representatives to reach a median to keep slavery out of Missouri after all the tribulations it had caused before it became a state. Henry Clay, Speaker of the House made important decisions in order for Missouri to be admitted as a state that could impact American history. In 1819, slavery was a resourceful profit to slave owners and this sparked a sectional controversy in the country over the efforts to expand slavery into the new western territories. The country had 22 states, eleven free eleven slave, and the line between them were distinguished by the northern and western boundaries of Pennsylvania and the Ohio River. (Txt.

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575 Words | 3 Pages

So, this essay will explain one from the other. The Missouri Compromise has many differences from the Compromise of 1850. One difference would be that in breaking up the different parts of the Louisiana Territory, it created peace between Northerners and Southerners. The Northerners were happy that more territory was safe for freed slaves, although they weren't quite happy that there was still slavery in the USA. However, the southerners stayed happy until the Southerners realized that this gave congress a say in which states could have slavery.

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Roger Taney played a vital role with the tension between the north and the south based on the decision he made with the Dread Scott case. Because of Taney’s decision, he led many conflicts such as the free or slave black person, the Missouri Compromise, and lastly the conflict between the north and the south idea on slavery. Taney believed that blacks could not be considered Citizens in the United States because of their race. He states “there are two clauses in the constitution which point directly and specifically to the negro race as a separate class of persons, and show clearly that they were not regarded as a portion of the people or citizens of the government then formed”(Dread Scott v. Sandford). Since no black person could be free

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The constitutional issue in this case was the 1st amendment. Gregory Lee Johnson was tried for burning an American flag but the Supreme court decided he wasn’t guilty. They said that it was

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In 1961 the Florida Supreme Court denied Clarence Gideon’s request for an appointed lawyer during his trial. Gideon was poor and could not afford a lawyer and he was uneducated so he could not properly defend himself. His case applies to the Sixth Amendment which guarantees that the accused has the right to an attorney if they want one, and depriving someone’s right to counsel is a violation of due process under the Fourteenth Amendment. Despite his criminal background, Clarence Gideon’s appeal to the United States Supreme Court in 1963 resulted in the expansion of the right to counsel, an important element of due process, for all Americans.

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In 1857, an African American man named Dred Scott sued for his freedom in the Supreme Court. His owners brought him along on their trips across free states. Dred Scott failed in suing before his case was presented in the Supreme Court. Roger B. Taney was the fifth chief Justice of the United States when he wrote the Dred Scott vs Sandford decision. The Dred Scott vs Sandford case ended with the decision that African Americans, free and enslaved, had no rights and could not become citizens because they were property.

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103 Words | 1 Pages

In 1847 Dred Scott sued his slave owners widow for his freedom. Scott’s argument was that since he had previously been a residence of the free state of Illinois he was a free man. Scott eventually lost the case when, in 1857, it was brought to the Supreme Court who ruled in a 7-2 majority against Scott. The court stated that due to the fact that Scott was of African descent he could not be an American citizen, and therefore not sue in federal courts. The court also ruled that the Missouri compromise was unconstitutional, effectively allowing slavery in all states and territories.

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483 Words | 2 Pages

The majority decision of the Dred Scott case in 1857, was unconstitutional. As a slave wanted his freedom he was denied said freedom by the courts. The Dred Scott case was all about a slave who wanted freedom because he said the Constitution allowed him his freedom. As it precisely does, in it, it says, as the first 3 words of the Constitution “We the People” with no specifications or criteria.

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657 Words | 3 Pages

According to the text it states “congress was compelled to establish a policy to guide the expansion of slavery into the new western territory” also “Missouri entered as a free state while main entered as a slave state”. All this did was keep the power in the Senate even. While they thought the Missouri Compromise would help it really did not help get rid of the issue of slavery. Going on to 1854 the government has come up with the Kansas-Nebraska Act. According to the text ‘this act allowed settlers in two territories to determine whether or not permit slavery by a popular vote”.

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611 Words | 3 Pages

The Dred Scott V. Sanford case of 1857 declared that African Americans were not citizens of the United States and did not receive the same support from the Federal Government. During this time the Congress also lacked the power to ban slavery in all territories belonging to the United States. In 1850 Dred Scott and his family were declared free under the state court however, this did not last long. The Supreme Court of Missouri revoked the Scott’s family freedom which led him to take his case to the U.S. Supreme Court. The U.S. Supreme Court denied him citizenship of the U.S. even if he was a citizen of a free state.

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