March 6, 1857Primary sourceWell documented
The Dred Scott Decision
On the timeline · around March 6, 1857 ·
What happened
In Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857), the Supreme Court ruled that Scott, an enslaved man who had lived in free territory, could not sue for his freedom — and, sweepingly, that no person of African descent could be a U.S. citizen and that Congress could not ban slavery in the territories.
Why it matters
One of the most infamous rulings in the Court's history, Dred Scott inflamed the nation, discredited the Court in Northern eyes, and pushed the country closer to civil war. Its holdings were overturned only by the Civil War and the Reconstruction Amendments.