Dred Scott v. Sandford
A Brief History with DocumentsSecond Edition ©2017
Perhaps no other Supreme Court decision has had the political impact of Dred Scott v. Sandford. Using a variety of documents that reflect regional opinions and political debates, Paul Finkelman examines the 1857 decision that helped set in motion the events that eventually led to a new birth of free...
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Perhaps no other Supreme Court decision has had the political impact of Dred Scott v. Sandford. Using a variety of documents that reflect regional opinions and political debates, Paul Finkelman examines the 1857 decision that helped set in motion the events that eventually led to a new birth of freedom and the abolition of slavery in the United States. A revised Introduction reveals new understandings of the case and recently discovered evidence about Dred Scott, his wife Harriet, his owners, his lawyers, and the history of freedom suits in Missouri. New text sources include President James Buchanan’s inaugural address and the post-Civil War Amendments, which collectively reversed the major holdings in Dred Scott. This new edition also contains Questions for Consideration, an updated Selected Bibliography, and a Chronology of Events Related to Dred Scott.
“An insightful piece of work on a compelling subject, this book will be an extremely valuable addition to an already excellent series of books for the classroom.”
-Robert C. Kenzer, University of Richmond
Table of Contents
Foreword
Preface
List of Maps and Illustrations
Introduction: The Dred Scott Case, Slavery, and the Politics of law
An Overview of the Dred Scott Case
A Bad Decision
A Complex and Confused Case
Slavery in the Territories
Who Was Dred Scott?
Dred Scott Sues for Freedom
In the Federal Court
The Jurisdictional Issue and the Plea in Abatement
The Case in the Federal District Court
Before the Supreme Court
The Justices
The Compromise Not Taken
The Jurisdictional Question
Free Blacks under Taneys Constitution:
They Had No Rights"
The Status of Slavery in the Territories under Dred Scott
The Territories Clause
The Fifth Amendment
Law as Politics
The Politics of Law
The Republican Fear of a Conspiracy
The Nationalization of Slavery
The Democratic Response
Epilogue: Part I
Epilogue: Part II- Reversing Dred ScottPART TWO
The Documents
1. Opinions of the Justices
1. Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney, Opinion of the Court in Dred Scott, Plaintiff in Error v. john F. A. Sandford
2. Justice James M. Wayne, Concurring Opinion, March 6, 1857
3. Justice Samuel Nelson, Concurring Opinion, March 6, 1857
4. Justice Robert Cooper Grier, Concurring Opinion, March 6, 1857
5. Justice Peter Vivian Daniel, Concurring Opinion, March 6, 1857
6. Justice John Archibald Campbell, Concurring Opinion, March 6, 1857
7. Justice John Catron, Concurring Opinion, March 6, 1857
8. Justice John McLean, Dissenting Opinion, March 6, 1857
9. Justice Benjamin Robbins Curtis, Dissen ting Opinion, March 6, 1857
2. Newspaper Responses to the Dred Scott Decisions
Varieties of Southern ProSlavery Opinion
10. Enquirer (Richmond), The Dred Scott Case, March 10, 1857
11. Mercury (Charleston), The Dred Scott Case-Supreme Court on the Rights of the South, April 2, 1857
12. Daily Picayune (New Orleans), Citizenship, March 21, 1857
The Buchanan Administrations Paper Endorses the Decision
13. Union (Washington, D.C.), The Dred Scott Case, March 12, 1857
Northern Support for the Dred Scott Decision
14. Journal of Commerce (New York), The Decision of
the Supreme Court, March 11, 1857
15. Journal of Commerce\ (New York), The Dred Scott Case,
March 12, 1857
16. Post (Pittsburgh), Seeking an Issue, March 17, 1857
Opposition to the Dred Scott Decision: A Spectrum of Northern Opinion
17. Tribune (New York), March 7, 1857
18. Daily Times (New York), The Slavery Question- The Decision of the Supreme Court, March 9, 1857
19. Evening Post (New York), The Supreme Court of the United States, March 7, 1857
20. Independent (New York), Wickedness of the Decision in the Supreme Court against the African Race, March 19, 1857
21. Register (Salem), The U.S. Supreme Court, March 12, 1857
Lincolns Paper Responds
22. Tribune (Chicago), Who Are Negroes? March 12, 1857
23. Tribune (Chicago), The Dred Scott Case, March 17, 1857
A War for Public Opinion: The Washington Union and The New York Tribune
24. Union (Washington, D.C.), Unreasonable Complaints, March 21, 1857
25. Tribune (New York), Judge Taneys Opinion, March 21, 1857
26. Tribune (New York), Editorial, March 21, 1857
27. Tribune (New York), Editorial, March 25, 1857
28. Union (Washington, D.C.), The Supreme Court and the New York Tribune, March 28, 18573. Political Debate in the North
29. James Buchanan. Inaugural Address, March 4, 1857
30. 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
31. Abraham Lincoln, The "House Divided" Speech at Springfield, Illinois, June 16, 1858
32. Stephen A. Douglas, Speech at Chicago, Illinois, July 9, 1858
33. Abraham Lincoln, Speech at Chicago, Illinois, July 10, 1858
34. Stephen A. Douglas, Speech at Springfield, Illinois, July 17, 1858
35. The Debate at Freeport: Lincolns Questions and Douglass Answers, August 27, 1858
36. The Debate at Jonesboro, September 15, 1858
Congressional Debate
37. Congressional Globe, Bust of Chief Justice Taney, February 23, 18654. Reversing Dred Scott: Formal Constitutional Change
38. The Thirteenth Amendment, 1865
39. The Fourteenth Amendment, 1868
40. The Fifteenth Amendment, 1870APPENDIXES
Chronology of Events Related to Dred Scott (1787 -1870)
Questions for Consideration
Selected Bibliography
Index
Authors
Paul Finkelman
Paul Finkelman (Ph.D., University of Chicago) is the President of Gratz College in Greater Philadelphia. His many books include Supreme Injustice: Slavery in the Nation’s Highest Court; Civil War Congress and the Creation of Modern America; Lincoln, Congress, and Emancipation; Slavery and the Founders: Race and Liberty in the Age of Jefferson; Millard Fillmore; A March of Liberty: A Constitutional History of the United States, which he coauthored; and An Imperfect Union. For the Bedford Series in History and Culture he authored Dred Scott v. Sandford: A Brief History with Documents and Defending Slavery: Proslavery Thought in the Old South: A Brief History with Documents.
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