Lead up to the American Civil War - Dred Scott (Handout)
Dred Scott first went to trial to sue for his freedom in 1847. Ten
years later, after a decade of appeals and court reversals, his case
was finally brought before the United States Supreme Court. In
what is perhaps the most infamous case in its history, the court
decided that all people of African ancestry -- slaves as well as those
who were free -- could never become citizens of the United States
and therefore could not sue in federal court. The court also ruled
that the federal government did not have the power to prohibit
slavery in its territories. Scott, needless to say, remained a slave.
Born around 1800, Scott migrated westward with his master, Peter
Blow. They travelled from Scott's home state of Virginia to Alabama
and then, in 1830, to St. Louis, Missouri. Two years later Peter
Blow died; Scott was subsequently bought by army surgeon Dr.
John Emerson, who later took Scott to the free state of Illinois. In
the spring of 1836, after a stay of two and a half years, Emerson
moved to a fort in the Wisconsin Territory, taking Scott along.
While there, Scott met and married Harriet Robinson, a slave
owned by a local justice of the peace. Ownership of Harriet was
transferred to Emerson.
Scott's extended stay in Illinois, a free state, gave him the legal
standing to make a claim for freedom, as did his extended stay in
Wisconsin, where slavery was also prohibited. But Scott never made the claim while living in the free lands -perhaps because he was unaware of his rights at the time, or perhaps because he was content with his master.
After two years, the army transferred Emerson to the south: first to St Louis, then to Louisiana. A little over a
year later, a recently-married Emerson summoned his slave couple. Instead of staying in the free territory of
Wisconsin, or going to the free state of Illinois, the two travelled over a thousand miles, apparently
unaccompanied, down the Mississippi River to meet their master. Only after Emerson's death in 1843, after
Emerson's widow hired Scott out to an army captain, did Scott seek freedom for himself and his wife. First he
offered to buy his freedom from Mrs. Emerson -- then living in St. Louis -- for $300. The offer was refused. Scott
then sought freedom through the courts.
Scott went to trial in June of 1847, but lost on a technicality -- he couldn't prove that he and Harriet were owned
by Emerson's widow. The following year the Missouri Supreme Court decided that case should be retried. In an
1850 retrial, the the St Louis circuit court ruled that Scott and his family were free. Two years later the Missouri
Supreme Court stepped in again, reversing the decision of the lower court. Scott and his lawyers then brought his
case to a federal court, the United States Circuit Court in Missouri. In 1854, the Circuit Court upheld the decision
of the Missouri Supreme Court. There was now only one other place to go. Scott appealed his case to the United
States Supreme Court.
The nine justices of the Supreme Court of 1856 certainly had biases regarding slavery. Seven had been appointed
by pro-slavery presidents from the South, and of these, five were from slave-holding families. Still, if the case had
gone directly from the state supreme court to the federal supreme court, the federal court probably would have
upheld the state's ruling, citing a previously established decision that gave states the authority to determine the
status of its inhabitants. But, in his attempt to bring his case to the federal courts, Scott had claimed that he and
the case's defendant (Mrs. Emerson's brother, John Sanford, who lived in New York) were citizens from different
states. The main issues for the Supreme Court, therefore, were whether it had jurisdiction to try the case and
whether Scott was indeed a citizen.
The decision of the court was read in March of 1857. Chief Justice Roger B. Taney -- a staunch supporter of
slavery -- wrote the "majority opinion" for the court. It stated that because Scott was black, he was not a citizen
and therefore had no right to sue. The decision also declared the Missouri Compromise of 1820, legislation which
restricted slavery in certain territories, unconstitutional.
While the decision was well-received by slaveholders in the South, many northerners were outraged. The decision
greatly influenced the nomination of Abraham Lincoln to the Republican Party and his subsequent election, which
in turn led to the South's secession from the Union.
Peter Blow's sons, childhood friends of Scott, had helped pay Scott's legal fees through the years. After the
Supreme Court's decision, the former master's sons purchased Scott and his wife and set them free.
Dred Scott died nine months later
Lead up to the American Civil War - John Brown (Handout)
John Brown was a man of action -- a man who would not
be deterred from his mission of abolishing slavery. On
October 16, 1859, he led 21 men on a raid of the federal
arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. His plan to arm slaves
with the weapons he and his men seized from the
arsenal was thwarted, however, by local farmers,
militiamen, and Marines led by Robert E. Lee. Within 36
hours of the attack, most of Brown's men had been killed
or captured.
John Brown was born into a deeply religious family in
Torrington, Connecticut, in 1800. Led by a father who
was vehemently opposed to slavery, the family moved to
northern Ohio when John was five, to a district that
would become known for its antislavery views.
During his first fifty years, Brown moved about the
country, settling in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and New York, and taking along his ever-growing family.
(He would father twenty children.) Working at various times as a farmer, wool merchant, tanner, and land
speculator, he never was finacially successful -- he even filed for bankruptcy when in his forties. His lack of funds,
however, did not keep him from supporting causes he believed in. He helped finance the publication of David
Walker's Appeal and Henry Highland's "Call to Rebellion" speech. He gave land to fugitive slaves. He and his wife
agreed to raise a black youth as one of their own. He also participated in the Underground Railroad and, in 1851,
helped establish the League of Gileadites, an organization that worked to protect escaped slaves from slave
catchers.
In 1847 Frederick Douglass met Brown for the first time in Springfield, Massachusetts. Of the meeting Douglass
stated that, "though a white gentleman, [Brown] is in sympathy a black man, and as deeply interested in our
cause, as though his own soul had been pierced with the iron of slavery." It was at this meeting that Brown first
outlined his plan to Douglass to lead a war to free slaves.
Brown moved to the black community of North Elba, New York, in 1849. The community had been established
thanks to the philanthropy of Gerrit Smith, who donated tracts of at least 50 acres to black families willing to clear
and farm the land. Brown, knowing that many of the families were finding life in this isolated area difficult, offered
to establish his own farm there as well, in order to lead the blacks by his example and to act as a "kind father to
them."
Despite his contributions to the antislavery cause, Brown did not emerge as a figure of major significance until
1855 after he followed five of his sons to the Kansas territory. There, he became the leader of antislavery guerillas
and fought a proslavery attack against the antislavery town of Lawrence. The following year, in retribution for
another attack, Brown went to a proslavery town and brutally killed five of its settlers. Brown and his sons would
continue to fight in the territory and in Missouri for the rest of the year.
Brown returned to the east and began to think more seriously about his plan for a war in Virginia against slavery.
He sought money to fund an "army" he would lead. On October 16, 1859, he set his plan to action when he and
21 other men -- 5 blacks and 16 whites -- raided the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry.
Brown was wounded and quickly captured, and moved to Charlestown, Virginia, where he was tried and convicted
of treason, Before hearing his sentence, Brown was allowed make an address to the court.
. . . I believe to have interfered as I have done, . . . in behalf of His despised poor, was not wrong, but right. Now,
if it be deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice, and mingle my
blood further with the blood of my children, and with the blood of millions in this slave country whose rights are
disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments, I submit: so let it be done."
Although initially shocked by Brown's exploits, many Northerners began to speak favorably of the militant
abolitionist. "He did not recognize unjust human laws, but resisted them as he was bid. . . .," said Henry David
Thoreau in an address to the citizens of Concord, Massachusetts. "No man in America has ever stood up so
persistently and effectively for the dignity of human nature. . . ."
John Brown was hanged on December 2, 1859.
Lead up to the American Civil War – Dred Scott Case and John Brown’s raid
on Harper’s Ferry
1) What was Dred Scott’s defense in his bid for freedom?
2) On what grounds did the Supreme Court rule against Scott?
3) What effect did John Brown’s death have in the North? What effect did it have
in the South?
4) Why did Southerners feel threatened by John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry?
5) Examine the two images of John Brown just before his execution. What
elements of the print would make it effective propaganda for the abolitionist
cause?
John Brown quickly came to be viewed as a martyr for the abolitionist
cause. In this popular print, a slave woman and her young child pay
tribute to Brown as he is led to his execution.
Kansas artist John Steuart Curry’s famous painting of John Brown. In your opinion is he a Murderer or a
Martyr?