Dred Scott Decision

The Dred Scott decision was a huge controversy during the years before the Civil War. Dred Scott was a slave who lived with his owner in a free state and then relocated to a slave state.  Scott petitioned the court for freedom from slavery because according to the Missouri Compromise, he had lived north of the 36°30' latitude line. Scott's petition went all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court which issued its decision in 1857.  Chief Justice Roger B. Taney found that no black, whether free or a slave, could claim citizenship, and so could not petition the court for freedom.  This infuriated the anti-slave supporters and Chief Justice Taney was viewed as a satanic figure.  

This decision was a major factor that led to the Civil War. The Northerners were outraged by this dictate, the Southerers, smug.