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What Are The Effects Of The Dred Scott Vs Sanford Case

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The case of Dredd Scott vs Sanford and its ruling by the Supreme Court had significantly influenced the subject of slavery. The effect of the decision declared that no black, enslaved or free, was allowed to claim citizenship in the US. Slaves were considered property and had no right to consider themselves individuals. The Dredd Scott case decision specified that Congress wasn’t allowed to abolish slavery in US territories. The decision was morally wrong, in my opinion, and it proved unsuccessful to recognize the rights of the free peoples. The ruling also have many social and political consequences which startled angry resentment in the North which led to one step closer to the start of the civil war. The passage of the 14th amendment overridden …show more content…

Emerson was a U.S. army surgeon who lived in Missouri which allowed slavery. Scott, the slave, went to live with Emerson in Illinois, which had slavery abolished. They eventually lived in Wisconsin in which slavery was prohibited due to the Missouri Compromise. Emerson and Scott both returned to Missouri, then Emerson died a few years later. In order to ensure his freedom, Scott sued the Emerson’s wife. Scott delivered his argument on the fact that Illinois and Wisconsin, his and his master’s former residency, made him a free individual. A state court ruled in Scott’s favor, but that Supreme Court of Missouri reversed that decision. At the same time, Scott became property of John Sanford in New York. Scott’s lawyers transferred the case to federal court because Sanford didn’t reside in Missouri. The court ruled against Scott, and his lawyers took the case to the Supreme …show more content…

In the South, slaves were used as labor to work in the fields. Slaves were not permitted to have any rights nor were they given the respect of family life or basic human freedom. The case decision further created a division between the North from South. In the South, they enforced the idea that states had the right to control their own laws. However, the North enforced the concept of a strong nation have control over certain rights. The issue of slavery became a hot topic in the South mainly because it offended the North’s sense of morality. The decision was a product of the governing system. The courts are not given the ability to write laws but only can interpret laws passed by the US Congress. The main issue was that the court could only interpret what was framed as a problem regarding slaves as property and not citizens. They were simply seen as property owned by individuals, who were free. The basis that an owned can’t be denied his right to own property is considered unfair by government rules. The slave who is a human is considered property, but his master

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455 Words | 2 Pages

His goal by doing this was to officially earn his and his family’s freedom and leave the Emerson family. Scott’s lawyers argued that by moving him to a free state and by becoming a free man there, that he would always be a free man now. Scott had reason to believe that he would win the case because similar cases had gone through the Supreme Court before and they had ruled in the slave, or former slave’s

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246 Words | 1 Pages

In 1833, Dred Scott was purchased as a slave by John Emerson, an army surgeon who was moved from Missouri, the place he was bought, to a base in the Wisconsin Territory. However, under the Missouri Compromise of 1820, slavery was banned there, making the area a “free” state. Nonetheless, Scott continued to work as a laborer for Emerson for the next four years, and was a hired hand whenever the surgeon would go out of town for business. After moving around with Emerson, as well as his family, Scott was willed to Emerson’s wife Eliza Irene Stanford after his owner’s death in 1843. Eliza refused to set the Scott family free after they wished to purchase their freedom, causing Dred Scott to sue her in a state court, alleging that he was free under

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647 Words | 3 Pages

Scott and his wife file for separate petitions with the court as their petitions are dismissed and their lawyer files for a new trial. Irene then hands over the Scott’s to the St. Louis County Sheriff to be their sole custody as slaves, while the case that Scott had previously filed with the court was being resolved. The court case had a ruling and the Scotts’ were freed from slavery. Mrs. Emerson was not pleased with the court’s ruling and she and her brother appealed the ruling with the Missouri Supreme court and a new trial was started and named – Dred Scott v. Irene Emerson. The Missouri supreme Court decides to reverse their own ruling and Scott and his family are no longer free but slaves again living in a free

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907 Words | 4 Pages

Scott openly admitted he was born a slave and of African descent, but he also argued that once his owner took him and his family to a free state and territory to reside, his family became free from slavery. As Chief Justice Taney said in the opinion of the court, this case brought two major questions to the Supreme Court. The circuit court of the United States jurisdiction to hear and determine the case between these parties. It had jurisdiction as the judgment.

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770 Words | 4 Pages

“We may have all come on different ships, however we are in the same boat now. ”(Martin Luther King, Jr.). Segregation, racism, and slavery are just another word for when someone is to harass an African-American or a person of any color besides white. All of the court cases involving African-Americans were extremely unfairly ruled mostly because of how they treated and how the cases were ruled. Three Supreme Court cases influenced the civil rights movement by revealing how wrong racism, slavery, and segregation were: Dredd Scott v. Sanford, Plessy v. Ferguson, and Brown v. The Board of Education.

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483 Words | 2 Pages

Based on the supreme court, like the country itself, they were was split along sectional lines. One justice maintained that the matter belonged back in the state courts. Justices argued that Scott should be freed under the terms of the Missouri Compromise, but Conservative justices wanted to deny freedom to Scott and rule the Compromise unconstitutional. There were many important steps in the case. In the end the Court was unable to reach a single decision, but the positions taken by the Chief Justice, a former slave owner, prevailed in the end.

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756 Words | 4 Pages

This decision angered both northerners and southerners. The North was upset due to the decision, which declared that black Americans didn’t count as citizens, which made no effort in the abolition of slavery. The South’s issue was that the majority of their state population was African American, and would give them less representatives if they did not count as citizens, or people in general. This affected the election of Abraham Lincoln, which led to the South’s succession and the start of the

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716 Words | 3 Pages

In 1846, Scott sued his and his family’s freedom, but was rejected by the Supreme Court 11 years later. The final ruling had an immense impact politically, economically and socially. (Bell. “Civil War on the Western Border”). Chief Justice Roger B. Taney wrote an opinion against Scott, which makes logical sense since he is a southerner.

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He gained support from local abolitionists and filed for another suit in federal court in 1854, against John Sanford. John Sanford was Emerson’s brother and the executer of his estate. The case was decided in the favor of Sanford, so Dred Scott turned to the U.S. Supreme Court for another chance to fight his case. The Supreme Court ended up taking his case and on March 6, 1857, the Supreme Court’s decision of Scott vs. Sanford was issued. The jury decision was 7-2 and Judge Roger B. Taney denied Scott’s request to become a free slave.

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825 Words | 4 Pages

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.

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887 Words | 4 Pages

(“Transcript of Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857)” ) The Supreme Court ruled against Dred Scott, and sent him back to slavery. The Supreme Court could have voted “yes” to all of these questions, but instead they went against the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration reads, “We hold these truths to be self evident:

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2349 Words | 10 Pages

The court’s decision declared that no state at the time that the Constitution was ratified had included African Americans as citizens, then no one of African descent could become a citizen of the United States. Furthermore, the slaveholders actually moved into the Kansas territory did nothing to deter proslavery leaders to draft a state constitution favoring slavery. When the Lecompton constitution was submitted for voter’s approval, antislavery protested by refusing to votes, Kansas remained a territory. Because of different point of views, these 2 problems created a huge tension between the North and the South, it would take the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution to remove the racism and inequality, but even these did not reverse the racism underlying the decision. Slavery played an important role in America’s history.

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611 Words | 3 Pages

Slavery had a lot of complication when dealing with the national and state governments. When we go back to the Declaration of Independence we will notice the great emphasis on equality however this was not a national concept given to all. Slavery was a very controversial issue between the Northern and Southern States and what the Declaration of Independence stood for. While in the Northern part of the nation argued that Slavery was unconstitutional the Southern States fought to say that slaves were not considered people but material possessions

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547 Words | 3 Pages

Some people fail to see the way that major court cases in the United States history helped shape the way that the government is formed today. People with a black skin tone used to be harassed and treated differently than people with white skin tone simply because of the of the fact that they were colored. Well, that was until the Civil Rights Acts were passed. Three of the Supreme Court cases that influenced the civil rights movement by ruling certain things unconstitutional that were once considered okay: Dred Scott v. Sanford, and Plessy v. Ferguson, and Brown v. Board of Education.

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359 Words | 2 Pages

The Dred Scott decision of 1865 consisted of several implications on the status of free blacks in the United States, as well as concept of popular sovereignty, and the future of slavery in America. however, I believe the implications of the Dred Scott decision was for the status of free blacks in the United States due to the impacts it caused and the questions it rose. First of all, Dred Scott was an enslaved African American man from Missouri who moved in with his master Peter Blow, in Illinois, a free state. Dred Scott unsuccessfully fought for his freedom by claiming that being a resident in a free state made him a free man. However, in supreme court it was ruled that because blacks can not be recognized as citizens, they did not have

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