A Report of the Decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, and the Opinions of the Judges Thereof, in the Case of Dred Scott versus John H. Sanford. December Term, 1856.

HOWARD, Benjamin C.

Item Number: 116315

Washington: Cornelius Wendell, 1857.

First edition of the report of the Dred Scott decision which held that the U.S. Constitution was not intended to include citizenship for African Americans. Octavo, original wrappers. In good condition with some small chips and ownership inscriptions to the front and rear wrappers.

The Dred Scott v. Sandford case of 1857, popularly known as the "Dred Scott case", was a landmark decision made by the United States Supreme Court in which it ruled that the United States Constitution was not meant to include American citizenship for African Americans, regardless of whether they were enslaved or free, and so the rights and privileges that the Constitution confers upon American citizens could not apply to them. The decision was made in the case of Dred Scott, an enslaved black man whose owners had taken him from Missouri, which was a slave-holding state, into the Missouri Territory, most of which had been designated "free" territory by the Missouri Compromise of 1820. When his owners later brought him back to Missouri, Scott sued in court for his freedom. In an opinion written by Chief Justice Roger Taney, the Court ruled that black people "are not included, and were not intended to be included, under the word 'citizens' in the Constitution, and can therefore claim none of the rights and privileges which that instrument provides for and secures to citizens of the United States." The decision has been widely denounced ever since. Historian David Thomas Konig referred to it as "unquestionably, our court's worst decision ever."