Dred Scott was born into slavery in 1795 in South Hampton County, Virginia. He was owned by Peter Blow and his family who moved from Virginia to Alabama and then to St. Louis, Missouri in 1830. After moving to Missouri Peter Blow died. The Blow family had to sell Dred Scott because of money problems and he was sold to Dr. John Emerson an army surgeon. Dr. Emerson and Dred Scott moved from Missouri to Fort Armstrong, Illinois. Illinois was a free state where they lived for two years and a half years. Dred did not know he could sue for his freedom while he was living in the free state of Illinois. In 1836 Dred Scott met Harriet Robinson at Fort Snelling in the Wisconsin Territory. Harriet was owned by Major Lawrence Toliaferro. Major Taliaferro was also a justice of the peace and he married Harriet and Dred in 1836. Harriet was now the property of Dr. Emerson because of her marriage to Dred Scott. Dred could have sued for his freedom again while living in Fort Snelling because it was part of the Missouri Comprise of 1820, but he did not know that.
In 1838 Dr. Emerson married Eliza Irene Sanford and moved his family to Louisiana because of an army transfer. Harriet was pregnant with her first baby in 1838 and was moving again with Dred and Dr. Emerson when she gave birth to Eliza Scott on a steamboat called the
…show more content…
Irene Emerson that Dred Scott and his family were free. On March 22, 1852 the Missouri Supreme Court reversed it. Dred Scott and his attorneys went to the Federal Court, the United States Supreme Court. On March 6, 1857 the court said that the Scott family would stay slaves. Chief Justice Roger Taney said that because the Scott’s were African Americans they were not citizens of the United States and could not sue for their freedom. He also said that even though Scott once lived in Illinois and Wisconsin that were free, he lived in Missouri now and had to follow Missouri