President James Buchanan Directly Influenced the Outcome of the Dred Scott Decision
He’s remembered as a president who tried to unify a fractured nation with little success, doing damage along the way
By Kat Eschner
smithsonian.com
March 6, 2017
At his inauguration on March 4, 1857, James Buchanan endorsed the Supreme Court’s upcoming decision in the case of Dred Scott v. Sanford. Scott was an enslaved African-American man who had sued for his freedom, saying that because he had lived for four years in states and territories where slavery was illegal, he should be emancipated.
In what is widely acknowledged to be a shameful moment in American racial and legal history, on this day 160 years ago the United States Supreme Court ruled against Scott, declaring that all black people “were not and could never become citizens of the United States,†writes PBS. Therefore, Scott had no grounds to sue in the first place, the court said.
Read more:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/president-james-buchanan-directly-influenced-outcome-dred-scott-decision-180962329/#JaQjs01fzYhdM3Rp.99
