The Dread Scott Case: The American Civil War

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Among the many things that lead to the American civil war, the Dread Scott case seems to be the cause of much uproar in the states. Dread Scott was a slave who was taken to the Missouri territory in 1820 by his owner at the time. Keep in mind that Missouri was a slave state per the Missouri Compromise. Sometime afterward, his owner moved him and his family to the Wisconsin territory which was a free state (Missouri Compromise 1820). He and his family would continue to live in free territory as slaves for quite some time. After some time had passed, Scott found himself back in slave territory and was told that he was going to remain a slave despite living in free territory for an extended period of time. With the help of some abolitionists, Scott’s case made it all the way to the supreme court where they ruled that African Americans are not citizens of the United States and therefore, Scott had no rights to defend as the right only pertained to the citizens of America. The case also ruled the Missouri …show more content…

White which states that “unilateral secession was unconstitutional”. However, this case also established that revolution or consent of the states could lead to a successful secession. So how did the southern states secede from the union? The answer is that the Texas v. White decision was not made until after the civil war had already happened. Hence at the time of the war, there was no law prohibiting secession from the union of the states. In other words, the government was virtually powerless to stop this secession from happening. In my opinion, it seems as though this is largely due to the government not taking a firm stance on slavery. With the withdrawal of the Missouri Compromise, it left the power to determine the states position regarding slavery to the people in the states. This escalated to the point that eventually the Southern states seceded to form the confederate states of

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