Dred Scott The Slave Who Sued For His Freedom
Challenging The Supreme Court Leads To The Road To Abolitionism
Sep 17, 2009
Born a slave on the Peter Blow farm in Southhampton County, Virginia around 1799 and 1800, Scott became good friends with the children of his owner, in particular a son named Taylor; this was to prove very useful later in his life.
Scott tried unsuccessfully to buy his freedom for himself and his family and thus escape from slavery, but instead, his family was sold to an Army doctor by the name of John Emerson, and lived on Army bases around the country. After moving from state to state, Dr. Emerson eventually ended up in Missouri, and, unusual for the times, allowed both Scott and his wife, Harriet, their own separate residence and jobs; but Dred Scott wanted more. Freedom for him and his family.
Suing The Supreme Court
In April, 1846, when he was about fifty years old, Scott and his wife filed in the Missouri Supreme Court for their freedom based on the grounds that, since they had lived in “free” states while travelling to different Army bases, they should be considered free under the Constitution.
Surprisingly, the Supreme Court agreed, and they were granted their freedom, but it was to be short-lived.
In 1857, the federal courts struck down the Supreme Court's decision, declaring that, as a slave, and therefore not a citizen, Scott had no Constitutional right to sue. A surprise from the past was waiting for the Scotts however.
Freedom At Last
Taylor Bow, the son of their original owner, learning of their defeat, stepped up to their defense and decided to buy the Scott family with the sole intention of going through the process of freeing them.
In 1865, the 13th Amendment to the Constitution was enacted that ended slavery, followed three years later by the 14th Amendment that declared that, “All persons born in the United States are citizens of the United States and of the state that they live in.”
Dred Scott was officially freed on May 26, 1857 and lived a free man until his death on February 17th, 1858. Less than a year of freedom for a man who had fought his entire lifetime for it.
When questioned by a reporter, Scott had no words at the time, but later voiced his thoughts to Peter Blow's son Henry. "My words was too poor to explain how it feels to be a slave. I tried thinking how else to say it, to lay it out plain as dirt, but all the words in the world seemed just like leafs what fall down. They touches the dirt, but they covers it up too."
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