Embed Notice

Here's my summary of the Dred Scott case, in case you don't know about that yet.

Dred Scott was a slave. His owner Sandford took Scott and his family to Ohio to help him with some business, then left him there for three years while Sandford returned to Missouri.

When Sandford wanted him to return to Missouri, Scott said no. He said that there was no slavery in Ohio, and therefore he was no longer a slave from the moment Sandford brought him there.

The case went to the Supreme Court. The decision, authored by Chief Justice Roger Taney, said essentially "No, fuck you, negroes are not citizens of the United States, and you have no rights whatsoever."

(Birthright citizenship is in the news lately. The 14th amendment contains a clause that says as briefly and plainly as possible that persons born in the United States are citizens. Dred Scott is the reason it is there.)

(1/2)