Kansas-Nebraska Act
Dred Scott Case
Pages 492-493
Workbook 88
Kansas-Nebraska Act
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Congress changed the Missouri
Compromise and passed the KansasNebraska Act.
Under this new plan, slavery would not
be allowed in the territories of Kansas
and Nebraska.
People living in those lands would
decide the issue of slavery by voting.
Bleeding Kansas
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Kansas quickly became the center of
attention.
People for and against slavery rushed
to the territory, hoping to help decide
the vote.
Fighting broke out and more than 200
people were killed.
Kansas was admitted as a free state.
Dred Scott Case
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Dred Scott was a slave who asked the
Supreme Court to decide his freedom.
Scott argued he should be free
because he had once lived in a free
land.
He had lived in Illinois and Wisconsin
with his owner.
Chief Justice Roger Taney
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Chief Justice Roger Taney said that
Scott had “none of the rights and
privileges” of American citizens.
Dred Scott was a slave and living on a
free land did not change that.
Chief Justice Taney also said that
Congress had no right to outlaw
slavery.
Chief Justice Roger Taney
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He said the Constitution protects
peoples’ rights to own property and
slaves were property.
The Missouri Compromise according to
Taney was preventing people from
owning property.
Dred Scott Case
The Supreme Court
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Roger Taney was born to a wealthy
slave-owning family in Maryland.
At the time of the Dred Scott Case,
five of the nine justices were from the
South.
Taney hoped the decision of the
Supreme Court would end the
abolitionists movement.