{"id":545,"date":"2009-11-24T12:33:53","date_gmt":"2009-11-24T17:33:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wessyngton.com\/blog\/?p=545"},"modified":"2009-11-25T21:19:28","modified_gmt":"2009-11-26T02:19:28","slug":"dred-scott-decision-impact-on-african-american-citizenship-in-the-united-states","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wessyngton.com\/blog\/2009\/11\/dred-scott-decision-impact-on-african-american-citizenship-in-the-united-states\/","title":{"rendered":"Dred Scott Decision: Impact on African American Citizenship in the United States"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"See<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In 1847 an enslaved African American, Dred Scott, went to trial to sue for his freedom.\u00a0 <\/span>This case, which later became known as <\/span>Dred Scott v. Sanford,<\/span><\/em> impacted the citizenship of all African Americans throughout the United States.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Dred Scott was born a slave in Southampton County, Virginia and was owned by Peter Blow.\u00a0 <\/span>Peter Blow was the great-nephew of Colonel Michael Blow who owned my ancestors before they were brought to Wessyngton Plantation by Joseph Washington.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Scott was taken to Alabama by the Blow family and later to St. Louis.\u00a0 <\/span>After Peter Blow\u2019s death in 1832, Scott was bought by an army surgeon Dr. John Emerson who took him to Illinois and the Wisconsin Territory.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Scott\u2019s stay in Illinois and Wisconsin, where slavery was prohibited, gave him the legal standing to make a claim for his freedom.\u00a0 <\/span>The abolitionists \u00a0<\/span>encouraged \u00a0<\/span>him \u00a0<\/span>to sue for his freedom.\u00a0 <\/span>The case and appeals took \u00a0<\/span>ten years.\u00a0 <\/span>In March 1857, the United States Supreme Court declared that all blacks, slaves as well as free blacks, were not, and could never become, citizens of the United States.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The decision was a victory for southern slaveholders, while northerners were outraged at its outcome.\u00a0 <\/span>The <\/span>Dred Scott <\/span><\/em>case influenced the nomination of Abraham Lincoln to the Republican Party and his election that led to the South\u2019s secession from the Union and ultimately the freedom of all African Americans.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Peter Blow\u2019s sons, who had grown up with Dred Scott, helped him pay the legal fees for his lengthy case.\u00a0 <\/span>After the Supreme Court\u2019s decision, they purchased Scott and his wife and then emancipated them.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Dred Scott died nine months later\u2014a free man.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 In 1847 an enslaved African American, Dred Scott, went to trial to sue for his freedom.\u00a0 This case, which later became known as Dred Scott v. Sanford, impacted the citizenship of all African Americans throughout the United States. Dred Scott was born a slave in Southampton County, Virginia and was owned by Peter Blow.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15,19,13,21,18,20,22],"tags":[176,308,573,374,371,365,362,369,373,195,34,312,367,364,366,363,372,123,370,368,157],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wessyngton.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wessyngton.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wessyngton.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wessyngton.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wessyngton.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=545"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.wessyngton.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":547,"href":"https:\/\/www.wessyngton.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545\/revisions\/547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wessyngton.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wessyngton.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wessyngton.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}