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Slavery: The Scott V. Sandford Case

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The decision over slavery was later reversed in the Scott v. Sandford case, which happened in March 1857. The case involved Dred Scott and John F.A. Sandford, the brother of Irene Emerson. It was brought to the U.S. Circuit Court in Missouri by writ of error, a court order to give the records to the court of appeals. The main question was whether a Negro, whose ancestors were imported to this country, and sold as slaves, could become a citizen by means of the U.S. Constitution. The transcript stated that former slaves still living with their masters, though, in free territory, should return to slavery. Chief Justice Roger B. Taney claimed that no black, free or enslaved, could claim citizenship; therefore, were unable to petition the court …show more content…
The case declared, “Once a slave, always a slave”, and it caused more racial tension between the North and South. Succeeding the Dred Scott Case, in October 1859, an abolitionist by the name of John Brown, set forth a raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia. The raid was designed to instigate a large slave rebellion in the South and raid the arsenal at the fort. Brown, however, was captured and killed on December 2, 1859. The rebellion was associated with the Dred Scott Case because they both were steps to eliminate servitude from the states. As a result of these attempts to eradicate slavery, the American Civil War broke out on April 12, 1861. It had two main purposes and those were to decide whether the United States would be a dissolvable confederation of sovereign states or an individual nation with an independent national government; and whether this nation would continue to be the largest slaveholding country in the world. The war officially started because of the uncompromising difference between the free states and the slave states. The Civil War ended shortly after the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865. Lincoln, however, did not die until the day after his shooting by John Wilkes Booth, a 26-year-old stage actor. Booth did this because he resented Lincoln’s plan to promote African American rights. Booth’s plot set out a twelve-day manhunt to find him. On

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