Dred Scott was an enslaved man who lived in Missouri. His owner brought Scott to live in the free state of Illinois and the free Territory of Wisconsin from 1833 to 1843 before returning to Missouri. Scott sued for his freedom in a Missouri court in 1846, citing that his residence in Illinois and Wisconsin territory made him a free man. The Supreme Court sided with Scott’s master, John Sanford, declaring that Congress could not ban slavery from a federal territory, which made the 1821 Missouri Compromise unconstitutional. Further, the opinion reaffirmed slaveholders’ property rights under the Fifth Amendment. Finally, the court denied that Black Americans, enslaved or free, were not citizens of the United States and thus could not sue in federal court.
