Write a 7-page paper supporting my decision to choose the case of Dred Scott v. Sandford. The paper should reflex on the importance of the case. The reason for which the case was chosen (which is its history and historical precedent). How it changed America. What can be learned from the case? Did the supreme court make the right decision? Was Dred Scott free or a slave? And was Dred right to sue for his freedom.
Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. (19 How.) 393 (1857), was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court in which the Court held that the United States Constitution was not meant to include American citizenship for people of African descent, regardless of whether they were enslaved or free, and so the rights and privileges that the Constitution confers upon American citizens could not apply to them.
Facts of the case
Dred Scott was a slave in Missouri. From 1833 to 1843, he resided in Illinois (a free state) and in the Louisiana Territory, where slavery was forbidden by the Missouri Compromise of 1820. After returning to Missouri, Scott filed suit in Missouri court for his freedom, claiming that his residence in free territory made him a free man. After losing, Scott brought a new suit in federal court. Scott's master maintained that no “negro” or descendant of slaves could be a citizen in the sense of Article III of the Constitution.
Sample Solution