Dred Scott Vs Sandford

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Dred Scott v. Sandford is one of the most controversial court cases in American history. From the racial connotations, to the biased jury, it is still up for debate the legality of the decision. Dred Scott V. Sandford remains more important than a case like Brown v. Board of Education because of its impact causing increased abolitionist activism and division in the union. Dred Scott was born a slave in 1799 in Southampton County, Virginia. Though his full name and parents are unknown, everyone around him on the plantation called him Sam. He was born a slave owned by the family of Peter Blow. They were originally farmers, but then moved to St. Louis, Missouri to open a boarding house. Dred was sold to a man by the name of John Emerson in 1832 …show more content…
The democratic party split because of the judgement. Because there were Democrats in both the North and the South, there was no way it could stand even if Scott was ruled free . It also declared that Dred had no right to sue, because he was property. It all came down to the place of residence at the time. It was ruled that Illinois law had no effect on him because he was living in slave-Missouri at the time of the trial. One of, if not the most, important effects of the decision was that it declared all blacks, even free blacks, could never become citizens of the United States. Of course, this outraged the newly formed Republican party, and they knew they had to do something about this outrageous and ungrounded decision. Northerners viewed this decision by the predominantly slave-holding, southern jury and judge as a declaration of war by the South, but not a declaration of literal war, but instead a declaration of war on Northern ideals and beliefs. Many newspapers from the time claimed the decision was heavily influenced by a slave power conspiracy. These same newspapers also claimed that president Buchanan and other Democratic politicians were a part of this conspiracy. "Our readers will bear with us if we frequently bring this matter to their notice. Since the organization of the government, no event has occurred that will entail upon the country the consequences, which are involved in this partisan movement of the slavery propagandists. It is the first step in a revolution which, if not arrested, nullifies the Revolution of '76 and makes us all slaves again." wrote the Chicago Daily Tribune in response to the decision. This article served as a sort of call to arms for the North, and they rallied behind it. Understandably, the reaction from the North was quite different from the reaction from the South. Southerners actually laughed at the whole
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