Dred Scott v. Sandford
The Supreme Court decision Dred
Scott v. Sandford was issued on March 6, 1857. Delivered
by Chief Justice Roger Taney, this opinion declared that
slaves were not citizens of the United States and could
not sue in Federal courts. In addition, this decision declared
that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional and that
Congress did not have the authority to prohibit slavery
in the territories. The Dred Scott decision was overturned
by the 13th and 14th Amendments to the Constitution.
Library of
Congress Web Site | External Web
Sites | Selected
Bibliography
Abraham
Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress
Abraham
Lincoln wrote a speech examining the constitutional
implications of the Dred Scott Case in December 1856.
The
Frederick Douglass Papers at the Library of Congress
On May 14, 1857, Frederick
Douglas delivered a speech discussing the Dred
Scott decision on the anniversary of the American Abolition
Society.
Slaves
and the Courts, 1740-1860
Montgomery Blair, Dred Scott’s attorney, filed
Supreme Court briefs No.
7 and No.
137 during the Scott v. Sanford case.
The
Dred Scott opinion was reprinted by Horace Greeley & Co.
in 1860, which included an abstract of the opinions
of the other Supreme Court judges and a report from
a Joint Committee of the Senate and Assembly of New
York. Also, Howard's
Reports published another copy of the Dred Scott
decision.
Numerous law review articles were published in reaction
to the Dred Scott decision in 1857, including Thomas
H. Benton’s historical and legal examination, Horace
Gray and John Lowell’s review from the Law
Reporter, Samuel
Foot's examination of the case, and a legal review
attributed simply to “A
Kentucky Lawyer.”
Words
and Deeds in American History
Chief
Justice Roger Taney wrote a letter to Caleb Cushing
on November 9, 1857, thanking Cushing for his support
of Taney's decision in the Dred Scott case.
From
Slavery to Freedom: The African-American Pamphlet Collection,
1824-1909
Includes a pamphlet entitled "The
Slavery Question. Dred Scott Decision: To the Free Voters
of Ohio."
The
Nineteenth Century in Print: Periodicals
Contains articles from 1857 in The
North American Review and the New
Englander and Yale Review that discuss the Dred
Scott case. In addition, this collection contains a
letter-to-the-editor published in The
Century; A Popular Quarterly defending Chief Justice
Taney’s role in the Dred Scott decision.
May
21, 1796
Reverdy Johnson was born in Annapolis, Maryland on May,
21, 1796. Johnson, although personally opposed to slavery,
was the attorney who represented the slave owner in the
Dred Scott case.
The
Dred Scott Case, National Park Service
The
Dred Scott Case, Washington University in St. Louis
The
Dred Scott Decision and its Bitter Legacy, Gilder
Lehrman Institute of American History
Landmark
Cases, Dred Scott v. Sandford, Street Law and the
Supreme Court Historical Society
Landmark
Decisions, Scott v. Sandford, Findlaw
Our
Documents, Dred Scott v. Sanford, National Archives
and Records Administration
Ehrlich, Walter. They Have No Rights:
Dred Scott's Struggle for Freedom. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1979. [Catalog
Record]
Fehrenbacher, Don E. The Dred Scott
Case: Its Significance in American Law and Politics. New York: Oxford University
Press, 1978. [Catalog
Record]
Finkelman, Paul. Dred Scott v. Sandford:
A Brief History with Documents. Boston: Bedford Books, 1997. [Catalog
Record]
Kaufman, Kenneth C. Dred Scott's
Advocate: A Biography of Roswell M. Field. Columbia: University of Missouri Press,
1996. [Catalog
Record]
January, Brendan. The Dred Scott
Decision. New York: Children's
Press, 1998. [Catalog
Record]
Fleischner, Jennifer. The Dred Scott
Case: Testing the Right to Live Free. Brookfield, Conn.: Millbrook Press,
1997. [Catalog
Record]
Freedman, Suzanne. Roger Taney:
The Dred Scott Legacy.
Springfield, N.J.: Enslow Publishers, 1995. [Catalog
Record]
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