Juneteenth: Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)

On March 6, 1857, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney delivered the majority opinion in the Dred Scott Case. Scott, a slave, had been brought from a slave territory to a free territory and demanded his freedom. The Court ruled that as an enslaved person, Scott was not a citizen and could not sue in the courts. The decision further polarized the North and the South and ended any chance of compromise. This pro-slavery Supreme Court decision illuminates how the issue of slavery brought the nation to the brink of the Civil War. Read the full text here.