Dred Scott Decision
Verified
Date
March 06, 1857
Type
National
Author
htristian82
Location
Washington,
District of Columbia,
United States
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Categories
Political & Governance
Social & Civil Rights
Event Details
On March 6, 1857, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Dred Scott v. Sandford that African Americans, whether enslaved or free, could not be American citizens and that Congress had no authority to ban slavery in federal territories.
Widely considered the worst decision in Supreme Court history, it inflamed sectional tensions and accelerated the path to the Civil War.