Question/Problem 3: How did ideas and events contribute to the conflict between North and South?

Dred Scott, a slave from Missouri, was taken to the free state of Illinois and then the free territory of Wisconsin by his master where he lived for over a year. Dred Scott sued for his freedom on the grounds that he had lived in free territory. The case reached the United States Supreme Court. The court needed to determine whether Dred Scott was a citizen and also whether he was free. Read the following excerpt from the Supreme Court decision written by Chief Justice Taney and answer the questions below.

Now...the right of property in a slave is distinctly and expressly affirmed in the Constitution. The right to traffic in it, like an ordinary article of merchandise and property, was guaranteed to the citizens of the United States, in every State that m ight desire it, for twenty years. And the Government in express terms is pledged to protect it in all future time, if the slave escapes from his owner....And no word can be found in the Constitution which gives Congress a greater power over slave propert y, or which entitles property of that kind to less protection than property of any other description. The only power conferred is the power coupled with the duty of guarding and protecting the owner in his rights.

Upon these considerations, it is the opinion of the court that the Act of Congress which prohibited a citizen from holding and owning property of this kind in the territory of the United States north of the line therein mentioned, is not warranted by the Constitution, and is therefore void; and that neither Dred Scott himself, nor any of his family, were made free by being carried into this territory; even if they had been carried there by the owner, with the intention of becoming a permanent resident....

Upon the whole, therefore, it is the judgement of this court, that it appears by the record before us that the plaintiff in error is not a citizen of Missouri, in the sense in which that words is used in the Constitution....

From Henry Steele Commager, ed., Documents of American History, pp. 339-345.

1. What does "traffic" mean in this excerpt?

2. According to Taney, what is a slave? Where can he/she be taken?

3. Taney refers to "the Act of Congress" in his decision. What is the name of this law which he describes?

4. What two questions did Taney decide? What were his answers?

5. Explain the ways this decision contributed to the conflict between the North and the South.