The Dred Scott Case: Its Significance in American Law and Politics.

Abstract

Winner of Pulitzer Prize in 1979, this masterful examination of most famous example of judicial failure-the case referred to as the most frequently overturned decision in history. On March 6, 1857, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney delivered Supreme Court's decision against Dred Scott, a slave who maintained he had been emancipated as a result of having lived with his master in free state of Illinois and in federal territory where slavery was forbidden by Missouri Compromise. The decision did much more than resolve fate of an elderly black man and his family; Dred Scott v. Sanford was first instance in which Supreme Court invalidated a major piece of federal legislation. The decision declared that Congress had no power to prohibit slavery in federal territories, thereby striking a severe blow at legitimacy of emerging Republican party and intensifying sectional conflict over slavery. This book represents a skillful review of issues before America on eve of Civil War. The first third of book deals directly with with case itself and Court's decision, while remainder puts legal and judicial question of slavery into broadest possible American context. Fehrenbacher discusses legal bases of slavery, debate over Constitution, and dispute over slavery and continental expansion. He also considers immediate and long-range consequences of decision.

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