Dred Scott was a slave in the United States who sued unsuccessfully for his freedom in the famous Dred Scott v. Sandford case of 1857. His case was based on the fact that he and his wife Harriet were slaves, but had lived in states and territories where slavery was illegal, including Illinois and Wisconsin. The United States Supreme Court ruled seven to two against Scott, finding that neither he, nor any person of African ancestry, could claim citizenship in the United States, and that therefore Scott could not bring suit in federal court under diversity of citizenship rules.
Chief Justice Roger Taney said this in his majority opinion of the Dredd Scott Case:
"It is difficult at this day to realize the state of public opinion in regard to that unfortunate race which prevailed in the civilized and enlightened portions of the world at the time of the Declaration of Independence, and when the Constitution of the United States was framed and adopted; but the public history of every European nation displays it in a manner too plain to be mistaken. They had for more than a century before been regarded as beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations, and so far unfit that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect." Further he found that, "Any person descended from black Africans, whether slave or free, is not a citizen of the United States, according to the Declaration of Independence."
Essentially the Supreme Court ruled that all slaves had no claim to freedom as they were PROPERTY and not citizens. Being property and not human beings it was not possible to bring a suit in federal court. Following the Supreme Court ruling Dred Scott and his wife were returned to their owners but were set free by them. After being set free free he worked as a porter in St. Louis for less than a year before he died from tuberculosis.
Yes, we have come a long way since then, but the stories continue about President elect Obama. I find with some irony that he is accused by some as a person without proper citizenship papers, being naturalized.
For the some twelve million black Africans brought as slaves to the Americas from the 16th to the 19th centuries and the four million who were here in the United States during Dred Scott's life this is a most profound achievement to have a Black American elected President of the United States. How fitting as well that he should have been a professor of constitutional law at the University of Chicago. I think he knows more about justice than Chief of Justice Roger Taney could claim, thank goodness.
