Taney read the majority opinion of the Court, which stated that enslaved people were not citizens of the United States and, therefore, could not expect any protection from the federal government or the courts. By the time the case reached the high court, it had come to have enormous political implications for the entire nation. On its way to the Supreme Court, the Dred Scott case grew in scope and significance as slavery became the single most explosive issue in American politics. However, what appeared to be a straightforward lawsuit between two private parties became an 11-year legal struggle that culminated in one of the most notorious decisions ever issued by the United States Supreme Court. Scott lost his case, which worked its way through the Missouri state courts he then filed a new federal suit which ultimately reached the Supreme Court. The Scotts' freedom could be established on the grounds that they had been held in bondage for extended periods in a free territory and were then returned to a slave state. They had lived with their enslaver, an army surgeon, at Fort Snelling, then in the free Territory of Wisconsin. They claimed that they were free due to their residence in a free territory where slavery was prohibited. In 1846, an enslaved Black man named Dred Scott and his wife, Harriet, sued for their freedom in St.

Download free normal state of mind