Dred Scott v. Stanford

The Dred Scott case was about the civil right act of 1866 and the fourteenth amendment which gave gave african americans full citizenship, so the case was about whether Dred Scott was a slave or a citizen. Dred Scott was a slave in Missouri. He resided in Illinois and in an area of the Louisiana Territory, where slavery was forbidden by the Missouri Compromise of 1820. After returning to Missouri, Scott sued unsuccessfully in the Missouri courts for his freedom, claiming that his residence in free territory made him a free man. The two sides of the case were was Dred Scott a free man or was he a slave. Dred Scott was a slave. Under Articles III and IV, argued Taney, no one but a citizen of the United States could be a citizen of a state, and that only Congress could confer national citizenship. The Court then held the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional, hoping to end the slavery question once and for all.