Dred Scott Decision
Dred Scott was a slave of John Emerson, an army surgeon, in the 1800s. Scott was taken to a part of Illinois, now known as Minnesota, then returned to Missouri after the Missouri Compromise in 1820. This meant that the area Scott lived in for a long period of time and the part of Minnesota he was in was now free. In 1846 Dred Scott sued for his freedom on the grounds that he lived in a free state and a free territory for a long period of time. After eleven years his case reached the supreme court . The court ruled that Scott was not free even though he spent two years in the free northwest territory. They also ruled that since Scott was a black slaved man he was excluded from United State citizenship. Their last ruling was that the Congress did not have the right to prohibit slavery and therefore the Missouri Compromise was Unconstitutional.