Today in History: Dred Scott

On this day (March 6) in 1857 the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in the landmark Dred Scott decision. Dred Scott and his wife, Eliza, sued for their freedom in Federal Court on the grounds that they had been taken into free territories by their owners and resided there, becoming free. They further argued that because Eliza Scott had been born on a steamboat between a free state and a free territory, she had been born free and thus was never a slave. The Supreme Court ruled against them stating that African-Americans whose parents were imported as slaves, whether enslaved or free, could not become American citizens and therefore did not have standing to sue in Federal Court. It also ruled that the Federal Government had no authority to outlaw slavery in the Federal territories. This decision was a terrible blow to abolitionist hopes of restricting and eventually ending slavery. It was only the second time that the Supreme Court had ruled an Act of Congress to be unconstitutional. The Court believed that their decision would decisively put an end to the slavery debate but it had the opposite effect, inflaming abolitionist sentiment in the north and helping pave the way to the Civil War.