Dred Scott's Argumentative Analysis

STEP 5 → Put your essay together below, review it, and revise! Be sure that your arguments are clear and well-supported by evidence with in-text citations. America was and is known as the “land of the free.” But American was not always a free country for all those who lived in it. African-Americans were not treated equally to any whites who lived in America in the colonial time period. In the South, slavery was a dominant way people lived, either you were a slave, or a slave owner. Slaves had to suffer harsh conditions, as they were not viewed as apart of American Citizenship nor considered humans. Free or not, African Americans were never created equally to white Americans at this point in history. The Declaration of Independence only seemed to apply to a certain group of men, that group did not …show more content…
Slavery was no longer as dominant as it was in the South, in fact, slavery in the North was abolished at this time. However, African-Americans in the North were still not treated as equally. Even though blacks were free from slavery in the North they still could not have the same rights or freedoms that whites had had at this time in America. One of the most controversial events preceding the Civil War was the Dred Scott case. This case argued the fact that any free African-American was still not respected as an American citizen.According to history.com Scott argued that time spent in a free state entitled him to emancipation. But the court decided that no black, free or slave, could claim U.S. citizenship, and therefore blacks were unable to petition the court for their freedom. African-Americans still were looked down upon even in the North. They could not yet vote or get certain jobs when whites could. Even though the North finally considered African-American males as men and not property, “all men are created equal” still did not proceed to apply to