mar 6, 1857 - Dredd Scott vs Sanford

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The Dred Scott decision was one of the most controversial events preceding the Civil War. Dred Scott was a slave who had lived with his owner in a free state before returning to the slave state of Missouri. Scott brought the case before the Supreme Court in 1856, arguing that time spent in a free state entitled him to emancipation. However, the court decided in 1857, that no black, free or slave, could claim U.S. citizenship, and therefore blacks were unable to petition the court for their freedom. The Dred Scott decision outraged abolitionists and heightened North-South tensions.

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