Dred Scott Case | FactMonster

Home /

Columbia Encyclopedia /

History /

United States, Canada, and Greenland /

Court Cases /

Dred Scott Case

Dred Scott Case

Dred Scott Case, argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1856–57. It involved the then bitterly contested issue of the status of slavery in the federal territories. In 1834, Dred Scott, a black slave, personal servant to Dr. John Emerson, a U.S. army surgeon, was taken by his master from Missouri, a slave state,