Ruben Ramirez
Period 6
12-1-13
Dred Scott v. Sanford In the case Dred Scott v. Sanford, Dred Scott lost but a majority based arguments on why he lost on assumptions and misinterpretations of certain founding documents. The people based their argument on the fact that the founders of the constitution did not mention anything about African Americans being considered property because they had always used African Americans as chattel although Thomas Jefferson had mentioned that it was wrong for the British king to be using slaves in the colonies. Jefferson had used the word men instead of slaves to make everyone seem equal but this was deleted from the Declaration of the Independence. In both the Declaration of Independence and the constitution there is nowhere that says an African American can’t be a citizen and that they have to be a slave or a person’s property. There was much debate whether Dred Scott should be considered a citizen or not but according to Chief Justice Taney, the argument was not valid because everyone knew that African Americans were not considered as part of the phrase “We the People” in the Declaration of Independence. Taney believed that African Americans could never become citizens because the phrase of the Declaration of Independence, “All men are created equal,” excluded all African Americans. It sounds as if Taney had thought that everyone in the colonies wanted to be pro-slavery. Scott was not able to sue in court because the court said that he was not a citizen because his race was not part of the culture that had adopted the constitution. They used the constitution to defend slaves from being free because they were considered property and the constitution gives people to protect their property. The conclusion that Taney had given during the trial was based on the belief that the people who framed and adopted the constitution into their lives were racist and believed that slaves should be considered property. When the Articles of Confederation were implemented into the colonies, any person who was born in the states was automatically considered a citizen. However some people thought that African Americans shouldn’t be able to become citizens because the Declaration of Independence says we the people and since Taney said this excluded African Americans people automatically assumed that the phrase “we the people,” did not include African Americans when in reality it included all people not just a certain group of people. Abraham Lincoln was not pleased with the dred scott case and stated, “Chief