dred scott v. sandford

The Supreme Court's 1857 decision, written by Chief Justice Taney, held that no Black American could be a citizen and that Congress could not bar slavery from the territories, striking down the Missouri Compromise. Justice Curtis's dissent answered on history and text, and the ruling, meant to settle the slavery question, helped bring on the war.

Read the Opinion of the Court and the dissent, with the Northwest Ordinance (1787), Calhoun's speech on the abolition petitions (1837), the Wilmot Proviso (1846) and Clay's Compromise of 1850, in the Roots of American Order summer seminar, June 2026.