Dred Scott - Owned By an Abolitionist?!

In 1857, the country was in an uproar over the Supreme Court's ruling in the Dred Scott v. Sandford case. The South viewed it as a vindication of the abstract right to carry constitutionally-protected property of all descriptions (including slaves) into the Territories; many in the North, such as Abraham Lincoln, viewed it as an attempt by pro-slavery demagogues to force slavery on the entire country. Chief Justice Roger B. Taney was hailed as both a hero and a villian, and today he is still vilified as the enemy of the Black man's freedom. The story behind the case goes like this: Dred Scott was carried by his master from Virginia to Missouri in 1827, where he was eventually sold to Dr. John Emerson, a native of Pennsylvania and surgeon in the United States Army. Following Emerson's death shortly thereafter, Dred's lawyer filed suit for his freedom, alleging that Emerson had carried his slave into what is now Minnesota in violation of the Missouri Compromise and that such relocation automatically rendered Dred a freedman. The case made it all the way to the Supreme Court, with Judge Taney writing a lengthy opinion on the inability of Dred to sue as a Citizen and the unconstitutionality of the Missouri Compromise. However, what the history books leave out is one very interesting fact: Dred Scott and his wife were secretly owned by a Radical Abolitionist Congressman from Boston who could have freed them at any time he saw fit! More...

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