Mrs. Dred Scott: A Life on Slavery's Frontier

by Lea Vandervelde

Among the most infamous U.S. Supreme Court decisions is Dred Scott v. Sandford . Despite the case's signal importance as a turning point in America's history, the lives of the slave litigants have receded to the margins of the record, as conventional accounts have focused on the case's judges and lawyers. In telling the life of Harriet, Dred's wife and co-litigant in the case, this book provides a compensatory history to the generations of work that missed key sources only recently brought to light. Moreover, it gives insight into the reasons and ways that slaves used the courts to establish their freedom.
A remarkable piece of historical detective work, Mrs. Dred Scott chronicles Harriet's life from her adolescence on the 1830s Minnesota-Wisconsin frontier, to slavery-era St. Louis, through the eleven years of legal wrangling that ended with the high court's notorious decision. The book not only recovers her story, but also reveals that Harriet may well have been the lynchpin in this pivotal episode in American legal history.
Reconstructing Harriet Scott's life through innovative readings of journals, military records, court dockets, and even frontier store ledgers, VanderVelde offers a stunningly detailed account that is at once a rich portrait of slave life, an engrossing legal drama, and a provocative reassessment of a central event in U.S. constitutional history. More than a biography, the book is a deep social history that freshly illuminates some of the major issues confronting antebellum America, including the status of women, slaves, Free Blacks, and Native Americans.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

496 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Michele Maakestad · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm still trying to get through to the end of this. Have about 30 pages left. Am very disappointed. Thought this would be an interesting look at an overlooked historical personage. Unfortunately, there aren't many records regarding Harriet and so most of the insights into Harriet's life come as supposition based on other records. And I did not agree with the author's suppositions. Ms. Vandervelde seemed to really want Harriet to be something, and instead of trying to glean insight from documents, she instead found ways to rationalize ideas that might support her perception. Overall, a dull read, with little actual insight into Mrs. Dred Scott.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

I purchased this book after my daughter and son-in-law treated me to a day at Fort Snelling in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The author begins by plainly admitting the challenge of writing, a biography of an illiterate person, calling this work an anthropological reconstruction (page 5). This does not suggest that the book is not well documented, there are 136 pages of footnotes. The author uses the diaries of people around Mrs. Scott, newspaper articles, and various legal documents to make logical suppositions about her biography. The author makes it very clear when she is stating a demonstrative fact, or when she is making a logical extrapolation.

Toward the end of the book, the Dred Scott case is examined closely. However, a majority of the book is really about life and slavery on America’s frontier. Much of the book is devoted to Harriet Scott’s life at the fort, her marriage to Dred and the interaction between American soldiers and first nation peoples. This book is not an easy read, but a good investment in time to understand what the Midwest was built upon.

[Diane G. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written by a distinguished professor of history, this book sheds new light on the famous case that led up to the Civil War. I was fascinated by the details of frontier life in the territorial Upper Midwest. By looking at what is known about Harriet, the wife of Dred Scott, and by describing the complex relationships between citizen white people, Native Americans, Métis, and slaves, the author sets the stage for Harriet’s brave, if ultimately hopeless, bid for freedom and citizenship, and shows to what lengths she and her husband went to keep their children safe. I never realized slavery existed so far north, nor that slaves could be loaned out indefinitely to work for others. Nor was I aware of all the illegal and successful attempts to keep Harriet and Dred Scott from freedom before the infamous Decision. This is a book for history lovers, for those who love stories of perseverance, and for those who would better understand the origins of today’s issues.

[Robert Scally · Rating 5 out of 5]

I try not to give five stars lightly, but Lea Vandervelde manages the near impossible: shedding light on the life of an enslaved woman.

Harriet Scott was the wife and co-litigant of Dred Scott in on of the most infamous Supreme Court cases in American history.

Harriet Scott literally did the dirty laundry of many of the most famous people of the pre- and post civil war era. It was largely through Harriet's efforts that Dred's story and legacy was kept alive. The books adds context to the life and times of these two key, but little known, figures in the events leading to the Civil War and the eventual ending of slavery.

This is an academic history, written by a skilled academic historian.
I found it totally fascinating.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a must read for anyone interested in antebellum history in the northern states. Dred Scott was a slave in Ft. Snelling, Minnesota prior to going to St. Louis. The relationships between the slaves, the soldiers, and the Native Americans is fascinating and surprising While slavery was illegal in the territory, it continued to exist. The efforts of Dred Scott's wife to get their freedom over many years is compelling reading.

Here is a whole different slant on slavery in the United States....this book should be required reading.

[Traci Rasmusson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing insight into a period of history many of us know little about. Mrs. Dred Scott was a woman, illiterate and a slave...so what we know about her is through the historical documentation about her owners, her husband and the court case that eventually galvanized a nation into civil war. Her story is a true American story and the repercussions of her court case for emancipation still reverberate through history. Well researched and exhaustively documented work.

[Lillian · Rating 1 out of 5]

Truly the worst history book I have ever read. The writing seemed so amateur and SO repetitive that I can't understand how it was able to be published like this. The research itself is really remarkable but its significance is completely lost in the incredibly poor execution. I feel almost less informed about the significance of the Dred Scott case itself.