Impact of Dred Scott Decision IntroductionThe Dred Scott v. Sandford ruling has gone down in history as one of the worst SupremeCourt decisions in the United States. By ruling that African Americans had no citizenship rightsunder the American Constitution whether they were free or not, the court hoped to put the ragingslavery debate to rest […]
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Introduction
The Dred Scott v. Sandford ruling has gone down in history as one of the worst Supreme
Court decisions in the United States. By ruling that African Americans had no citizenship rights
under the American Constitution whether they were free or not, the court hoped to put the raging
slavery debate to rest and bring unity to the country. However, as this paper will show, the ruling
ended up deepening the North-South divisions and placing the United States on the path to Civil
War which broke out five years later.
The Dred Scott v. Sandford Case
Dred Scott, an African American slave, felt that he was a free man because he had lived
with his masters for a while in the largely free Missouri Territory (Wilson, 2018). He, therefore,
objected to being a slave when his master returned with him to Missouri State, a slave-holding
state. When lower courts denied giving him freedom he brought the case to the Supreme Court.
In a 7-2 ruling against Dred Scott, the court ruled that not only did he remain a slave but that all
African Americans, whether free or slave, did not have citizenship rights under the American
Constitution (Wilson, 2018).
How the ruling impacted various American groups and persons
The ruling elicited widespread consternation in the north where slavery was illegal and
celebration in the south where it was legal. Representing the views of most African Americans
and abolitionists, Frederick Douglas, a prominent ex-slave and abolitionist, termed the ruling as
unconstitutional and predicted that it was likely to lead to Civil War (Wilson, 2018). Prominent
IMPACT OF DRED SCOTT DECISION 3
northern Republicans such as future president Abraham Lincoln viewed the ruling almost in
conspiratorial terms as a plot by slave-holding southern states to make the whole of the United
States a slave-holding country (Wilson, 2018). These views contrast sharply with those of
southerners who celebrated the ruling. For instance, Jefferson Davis, future president of the
Confederate States that were to secede from the Union five years later, argued that the ruling
represented the correct interpretation of the constitution (Wilson, 2018).
Effect of the ruling on national philosophies and ideals
The American Republic had been created on the ideals of freedom and liberty for all men.
At the time of its creation, these ideals were exclusively for white men (Zinn, 2015). That is why
America’s Founding Fathers did not see any discrepancy between slavery for African Americans
and freedom for humanity that they espoused. However, over time, many Americans, particularly
in the north, came to see the institution of slavery as an evil one and a blight on America’s soul.
They also felt that it was hypocritical for Americans to proclaim themselves as a nation that
values freedom and liberty while it held millions of people in slavery (Zinn, 2015). By 1820,
these views had become strong enough that Congress passed Missouri Compromise in 1820 to
prohibit slavery in Louisiana Territories north of 36 degrees parallel with the exception of
Missouri (Zinn, 2015). Even though this compromise was watered down by the Kansas-Nebraska
Act of 1854 which allowed states joining the Union south of the 40 degree parallel to vote
whether to join as a free or slave state, the view of many northerners was that slavery was in the
path to extinction.
Unfortunately, these views were not shared by southerners who strongly supported
slavery for both political and economic reasons. Feeling the onslaught of northerners against an
IMPACT OF DRED SCOTT DECISION 4
institution upon which their economic and political power rested, they were determined to make
sure that as America expanded to the west, the newly formed states will be largely slave-holding
(Zinn, 2015). Minus such an outcome, they believed that only secession would help them.
The Dred Scott decision emboldened both sides of the slavery debate. Northerners
became even more fervent abolitionists while southerners became even bolder in their schemes
to have slavery expand across the United States. They believed that they were now on the side of
the law and the ruling had vindicated their long-held beliefs that blacks were inferior to whites
and mere property. The result of these deep divisions was the Civil War of 1861-1865 upon
whose anvil the American States were hammered into the modern union that it is.
Conclusion
The Dred Scott decision was, therefore, a decision that hastened the collision of free and
industrial north and the slaveholding and agricultural south. The ensuing civil war that the
decision contributed to, not only resulted in ending of slavery in the U.S. but also in giving
citizenship rights to all African Americans thus finally allowing all Americans to enjoy the rights
and liberties contained in their constitution.
IMPACT OF DRED SCOTT DECISION 5
References
Wilson, J. G. (2018). John C. Calhoun, Dred Scott v. Sandford, and the Lincoln-Douglas
Debates: Tinning Constitutional Theories and Conventions into Constitutional Law.
In The Imperial Republic (pp. 213-240). Routledge.
Zinn, H. (2015). A people’s history of the United States: 1492-present. Routledge.
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