Dred Scott v. Sandford

Dred Scott was a slave from Missouri but from 1833 to 1843 he lived in Illinois (a free state) and in Louisiana (also an area where slavery was forbidden after the Missouri Compromise of 1820). He decided to return to Missouri in 1843. He unsuccessfully sued for his freedom in the Missouri court system. He claimed that his residence in a free state for the past 10 years made him a free man everywhere.

The case went to the Supreme Court. The question the Court was asked to answer was this: is Dred Scott a slave or a free man? It was a 7-2 decision that Dred Scott was a slave, and therefore he was not a citizen and could not sue. The Court also decided the Missouri Compromise to be unconstitutional because it was in violation of the Fifth Amendment. They hoped this would answer the slavery question once and for all. Slaves were property, not people, according to this decision.