Dred Scott was the name of an African-American slave. He was taken by his master, an
             officer in the U.S. Army, from the slave state of Missouri to the free state of Illinois and
             then to the free territory of Wisconsin. He lived on free soil for a long period of time.
             When the Army ordered his master to go back to Missouri, he took Scott with him back to
             that slave state, where soon after his master died. In 1846, Scott was helped by
             Abolitionist(anti-slavery) lawyers to sue for his freedom in court, claiming he should be
             free since he had lived on free soil for a long time. The case went all the way to the
             United States Supreme Court. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Roger B. Taney,
             was a former slave owner from Maryland. In March of 1857, Scott lost the decision as
             seven out of nine Justices on the Supreme Court declared no slave or descendant of a slave
             could be a U.S. citizen, or even had been a U.S. citizen. As a non-citizen, the court stated,
             Scott had no rights and could not sue in a Federal Court and must remain a slave.
             At that time there were nearly 4 million slaves in America. The courts ruling
             affected the status of every enslaved and free African-American in the United States. The
             ruling served to turn back the clock concerning the rights of African-Americans, ignoring
             the fact that black men in five of the original States had been full voting citizens dating
             back to the Declaration of Independence in 1776. The Supreme Court also ruled that
             Congress could not stop slavery in the newly emerging territories. The Court also declared
             that it violated the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution which prohibits Congress from
             depriving persons of their property without due process of law. Anti-slavery leaders in the
             North cited the controversial Supreme Court Decision as evidence that Southerners wanted
             to extend slavery throughout the nation and ultimately rule the nation itself. S...