Slavery, Law, and Politics: The Dred Scott Case in Historical Perspective

by Don E. Fehrenbacher

This is an abridgement of the Pulitzer-Prize winning The Dred Scott Case, making Fehrenbacher's monumental work available to a wider audience. Although it condenses the original by half, all the chapters and major themes of the larger work have been retained, providing a masterful review of the issues before America on the eve of the Civil War.

Genres: History, Law, Nonfiction, Politics, American History

326 pages, Paperback

First published April 30, 1981

About the author

Don E. Fehrenbacher was William Robertson Coe Professor of History and American Studies at Stanford University, where he taught form 1953 until his retirement in 1984. Fehrenbacher earned his BA from Cornell College in 1946, his master's and doctorate from the University of Chicago and a second master's from the University of Oxford.

Reviews

[Kaleigh · Rating 4 out of 5]

A comprehensive look at the historical context surrounding the Dred Scott decision. If you’re interested in legal history, I highly recommend.

[Shain Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slavery, Law, and Politics: The Dred Scott Case in Historical Perspective, written by Don Edward Fehrenbacher, is an abridged publication of the author’s 1978 Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Dred Scott Case: Its Significance in American Law and Politics. The abridged format of Fehrenbacher’s Slavery, Law, and Politics was possibly employed to attract a wider audience, inclusive of non-historians and students of varying academic scholarly pursuits. Whilst Slavery, Law, and Politics is an abridged version of The Dred Scott Case, the newer publication covers pretty much the same ground as the original publication.

Relatively speaking the only difference between Slavery, Law, and Politics and The Dred Scott Case is the text has been reduced by approximately half that seen in the original and there are significantly fewer annotated footnotes. Published in 1981, some three years after The Dred Scott Case, Slavery, Law, and Politics is considered a significant volume in American historiography. Whilst the Dred Scott decision (1857) is arguably a pivotal event leading up to the American Civil War, it was not until Fehrenbacher penned The Dred Scott Case that the Supreme Court case was finally seen through a lens which allowed for the complete legal and political context it rightfully deserved.

Fehrenbacher has provided his audience, at least the part which is acquainted with legalese, with a book which is metaphorically easy to consume. Anyone not family with the legal terminology Fehrenbacher utilises in Slavery, Law, and Politics would best be served by acquiring a legal dictionary. The reason for this is that Fehrenbacher does not define many of the legal terms he uses.

[Joe Rodeck · Rating 5 out of 5]

Scholarly, more for advanced constitutional law or political science types. Dred Scott doesn't say two words and is described not much more than being "small, pleasant-looking." Precedent arguments to include the Declartion of Independence, the Constitution . . . going all the way back to the Magna Carta.

Dred Scott loses, but this case becomes more about the "power of congress to prohibit slavery in the territories." It gets very complicated, leaving the overall impression that this was an historic low point for the Supreme Court.

"It may fairly be said that Chief Justice Taney elected Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency." - Charles Warren, Supreme Court historian

I enjoyed the evolution of the Supreme Court which now is considered by some the only legislative body: "Beyond comparison the weakest of the three departments of power." - Alexander Hamilton.

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Articles of Confederation "Thirteen separate, sovereign, independent States which had entered into a league or confederation for their mutual protection and advantage."

"Unless the master becomes an inhabitant of that State, the slaves he takes there do not acquire their freedom.

"Explanations explanatory of explanations explained." - Lincoln

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This book tells me that pre-MLK black history has been overly neglected in textbooks. After the American Revolution and the Civil War, I'd put "Brown vs the Board of Education" and next the Dred Scott Decision.

[Cliff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Terrific Book! I enjoyed every bit of it. If you don't know anything about the Dred Scott case, it is worth discovering. The Dred Scott case is the famous Supreme Court case in which a "master" sued for the return of his former slave and the Supreme Court denied the slave any rights of citizenship. It was in this case that Chief Justice Taney penned the infamous phrase: "The black man has no rights which the white man is bound to respect." This case is also widely regarded as one catalyst among many that spurred our country into the Civil War.

Dred Scott serves as an excellent backdrop for a thorough and illuminating exploration of the legal and social setting in which the Civil War era was set.

For the uninitiated in legal procedure, parts of this book may be tough to grasp, but the overall story is worth the effort.

[Karen]

* Understanding Oppression: African American Rights (Then and Now)