Introduction
On March 6, 1857, a large crowd gathered at the Capital in Washington D.C. to hear the Supreme Court issue its decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford. Although dozens of reporters were covering the event, neither of the named litigants was present. Dred Scott, the slave, was at his home in St. Louis, still held in bondage after eleven years of litigation. Meanwhile, his alleged owner, John Sandford, had been confined to an insane asylum and would be dead within two months. If the case meant little to these two men, it meant the world to many others in America.
Assignment
What were the origins of the Dred Scott case? Who was involved? What were the arguments presented in Court? How did the Supreme Court decide the case? And, why did the decision become such an important political and legal issue?
Primary Sources
Decisions of the Court in Dred Scott v. Sandford
In Dred Scott v. Sandford: A Brief History with Documents (Bedford), pages 53-126.
Roger Brooke Taney, Opinion of the Court in Dred Scott, Plaintiff in Error v. John F. A. Sandford
Justice James M. Wayne, Concurring Opinion
Justice Samuel Nelson, Concurring Opinion
Justice Robert Cooper Grier, Concurring Opinion
Justice Peter V. Daniel, Concurring Opinion
Justice John Archibald Campbell, Concurring Opinion
Justice John Cantron, Concurring Opinion
Justice John McLean, Dissenting Opinion
Justice Benjamin Robbins Curtis, Dissenting Opinion
Newspaper Responses to the Dred Scott Decision
In Dred Scott v. Sandford: A Brief History with Documents (Bedford), pages 127-165.
Varieties of Southern ProSlavery Opinion
Enquirer (Richmond), The Dred Scott Case, March 10, 1857
Mercury (Charleston), The Dred Scott Case--Supreme Court on the Rights of the South, April 2, 1857
Daily Picayune (New Orleans), Citizenship, March 21, 1857
The Buchanan Administration's Paper Endorses the Decision
Union (Washington D.C.), The Dred Scott Case, March 12, 1857
Northern Support for the Dred Scott Decision
Journal of Commerce (New York), The Decision of the Supreme Court, March 11, 1857
Journal of Commerce (New York), The Dred Scott Case, March 12, 1857
Post (Pittsburgh), The Dred Scott Case, March 14, 1857
Post (Pittsburgh), Seeking an Issue, March 17, 1857
Opposition to the Dred Scott Decision: A Spectrum of Northern Opinion
Tribune (New York) March 7, 1957
Daily Times (New York), The Slavery Question--The Decision of the Supreme Court, March 9, 1857
Evening Post (New York), The Supreme Court of the United States, March 7, 1857
Independent (New York), Wickedness of the Decision, March 19, 1857
Register (Salem), The U.S. Supreme Court, March 12, 1857
Zion's Herald and Wesleyan Journal (Boston), The Late Decision of the Supreme Court, March 18, 1857
Political Debate in the North
In Dred Scott v. Sandford: A Brief History with Documents (Bedford), pages 168-219.
Frederick Douglass, The Dred Scott Decision: Speech at New York, on the Occasion of the Anniversary of the American Abolition Society, May 11, 1857
Lincoln-Douglas Debates and the Dred Scott Decision
Abraham Lincoln, The "House Divided" Speech at Springfield, Illinois, June 16, 1858
Stephen A. Douglas, Speech at Chicago, Illinois, July 9, 1858
Abraham Lincoln, Speech at Chicago, Illinois, July 10, 1858
Stephen A. Douglas, Speech at Springfield, Illinois, July 17, 1858
The Debate at Freeport: Lincoln's Questions and Douglas's Answers, August 27, 1858
The Debate at Jonesboro, September 15, 1858
Secondary Sources
- Paul Finkelman, "Introduction to the Dred Scott case" in Dred Scott v. Sandford: A Brief History with Documents (The Bedford Series in History and Culture), pages 1-53.
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