Video: 'The Dred Scott Case'

(Friday, March 6, 1857) — In a 7–2 decision written by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled today in Dred Scott v. Sandford that Scott, an enslaved man of “the negro African race” who had been taken by his owners to free states and territories, could not be an American citizen and therefore had no standing to sue for his freedom in federal court.

The decision proved to be an indirect catalyst for the American Civil War.