The Dred Scott Decision: The Civil Rights Movement

By the turn of the nineteenth century America was a new and prosperous young nation, being built upon principles of ‘liberty’ and ‘freedom’. By the middle of the decade the nation was struggling to hold true to these principles, as it denied rights to Native Americans, women, and Blacks. Although the injustice was greatly resisted: Native Americans fought to keep their land, women fought for equality, and blacks were faced with the unrelenting task of fighting for freedom. One of the most notable cases of blacks fighting for their rights happened in the 1850s with Dred Scott. Scott was an African American slave who sued for his freedom in 1857 in Dred Scott v. Sanford; the case is commonly known as the Dred Scott Decision. Scott would base his suit on the fact that he once lived in both Illinois and Wisconsin, and both territories were free according to the Northwest ordinance of 1787; Scott therefore believed he was entitled to freedom. However, the US Supreme Court would rule against Scott, not only to issue a verdict for the trail, but also to settle issues related to slavery and congressional authority. In the end, the court’s decision created public outrage and deepened sectional tensions between the north and south. And by the 1960s …show more content…
In 1820 there were 11 Free states and 11 slavery states, admitting Missouri as a slave state would upset the balance; however, a solution would arise when Maine applied to be admitted to the union as a free state—balancing free vs. slave states at twelve each. The compromise was to prohibit slavery in territory above the 36⁰30’ latitude line. When the United State Supreme Court Ruled in Dred Scott v. Sanford, that they had no right to regulate slavery in territories they in essence nullified the Missouri compromise. This would upset many northerners who believed the federal government was becoming a “slave power conspiracy” (Ciment