| Just a slave! |
Dred Scott revisited: On March 6, 1857 the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision on slavery that helped to ignite the Civil War by escalating the debate.. Written by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, the Scott vs. Sanford decision declared that "a negro, whose ancestors were imported into [the U.S.], and sold as slaves" could not be an American citizen and so could not bring a lawsuit. Dred Scott was just a piece of property. He sued claiming that by taking him into free territory, his owner no longer had the right to keep him enslaved.