D red Scott was born into slavery in 1799 in Virginia. In his twenties, his owners—the Peter Blow family—joined in a large migration of whites to Missouri, following the passage of the Missouri Compromise that admitted Missouri into the Union as a slave state and, on balance, admitted Maine as a free state. The compromise was contrived to keep the parity of power in Congress between the number of slave states and free states. Upon the Blows’ arrival in St. Louis, Scott was sold to Dr. John Emerson, a military surgeon. Over the next twelve years, Scott traveled with the Doctor who was assigned to numerous posts—all places that prohibited slavery: Illinois, the Wisconsin Territory, and at Fort Snelling (which later became part of Minnesota).

It was at Fort Snelling that Dred Scott met and married fellow slave Harriet Robinson; they had two children. In 1840 Dr. Emerson moved everyone back to St. Louis. Upon his death three years later, the Scotts become the property of Mrs. Emerson who hired out all four Scotts to other families. In 1846, Dred and Harriet sought their freedom through the courts, giving supporting evidence of their deserved freedom by citing their years of residency in numerous free states. After tens years of their case making it’s way through the lower courts, it was finally heard by the United States Supreme Court. In the now infamous March 6, 1857 ruling, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney wrote the majority decision, which held that, as a slave, Dred Scott, was not a U.S. citizen, was therefore not entitled to sue for freedom in federal court, was not born free, and was to remain a slave. The court further ruled that the anti-slavery provision of the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional.

With no other recourse, the Scotts returned to Mrs. Emerson as slaves. She in turn returned them to the Blow family a year later following her remarriage to a man who opposed slavery. The Blows granted the Scotts their freedom in May 1857. Dred Scott died on September 17, 1858 at the age of 59.

The Dred Scott v. Sandford case was pivotal in American history. By declaring Black Americans as noncitizens and people with no rights under the constitution, the issue of slavery fueled America’s divide and contributed to the onset of the U.S. Civil War.

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American Civil War: April 12, 1861 – April 9, 1865

Emancipation Proclamation declared, on January 1, 1863, slaves in the Confederate States to be free.

13th Amendment to the United States Constitution ratified on December 6, 1865, abolished slavery.