1847: Dred Scott and the Freedom Suits
Big Idea
Despite ongoing dehumanization, Black men and women used the legal system to push the fight to be recognized as citizens of the United States and given the same legal protections as Whites.
Dred Scott
As the public debate over free versus slave states continued, an African American slave named Dred Scott pushed the conversation further.
Dred Scott and other enslaved Black men and women sued for their freedom in St. Louis courts as a result of a Missouri law that stated “once free, always free.” Scott sued for his and his family’s freedom arguing that they had been enslaved in a free state and therefore should be released as free. In 1857, Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney led the U.S. Supreme Court to reject Scott’s argument. The Court asserted that “negroes, whether slave or free, were not citizens of the United States” (Bogan, 1990, p. 381) and therefore ineligible to make this appeal for freedom in front of the Court.
Not surprisingly, Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney had been born in Smith County, Maryland, to a tobacco farming family who owned slaves (Bogen, 1990, pp. 381-382). This decision, in line with the 1790 Naturalization Act, continued to define Black persons as inferior and not eligible for citizenship in the United States.
Dred and Harriet Scott
Image Source: Wikipedia
“Freedom Suits”
Many “Freedom Suits” arose as a result of Missouri’s “once free, always free” judicial standard.
While Scott lost his case, he was one of many Black enslaved persons who sued for their freedom in St. Louis. Known as the “Freedom Suits,” enslaved Black men and women in St. Louis sued for their freedom citing Missouri’s judicial standard that guaranteed “once free, always free” (Hays, 2022). Slaves who had been taken to a free state and spent enough time there to be considered a “resident,” used this statute to sue for their freedom when they returned to St. Louis. While not all cases were decided in favor of the enslaved person, nearly a third of those who brought suit won their cases (Hays).
Click here to see the list of known Freedom Suits and their outcomes.
Your Turn
How did the Freedom Suits contribute to the development of democracy in the United States?
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Read more at the Equal Justice Initiative about the Dred Scott case.
Read the texts from the Freedom Suits at the WashU repository.
Read about the plaintiffs in the Freedom Suits at the Freedom Suits Memorial Foundation.
Explore more at the African American Midwest digital repository.
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Materials from iCivics on resisting slavery, including the role the freedom suits played in this.
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When in St. Louis visit the Old Courthouse where the Freedom Suits were tried.
Read about and visit the Freedom Suits memorial in St. Louis.
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Blackett, R. (2018). The Captive’s Quest for Freedom. Fugitive Slaves, the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law, and the Politics of Slavery. Cambridge University Press.
Bracey, C. ed. et al (2010). The Dred Scott Case: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on Race and Law (Law Society & Politics in the Midwest). Ohio University Press, 2010.
Hunt II, C.J. (2007). No Right to Respect: Dred Scott and the Southern Honor Culture. New England Law Review 42 (79).
Milteer Jr., W. E. (2022). Beyond Slavery's Shadow: Free People of Color in the South. University of North Carolina Press.