1. What makes you an “American” citizen?
OBJECTIVE
DO FIRST
You will be able to analyze the Dred Scott case and explain its effects.
What makes you an “American” citizen?
How do you become an “American” citizen?
Were African-Americans considered citizens during the 1850’s?

2. Anchor Babies & American Citizenship
According to the 14th amendment, all people born in the U.S. are citizens.
Some Americans believe that illegal immigrants have started to take advantage of this and come to the U.S. illegally only to have “anchor babies”— babies born in the U.S. who automatically become American citizens. There are some Americans who believe that this birthright citizenship should be taken away.

3. Anchor Babies & American Citizenship
As we watch the following clip, think about this question:
Why do some Americans want this right taken away?
How does race play a role in this argument on citizenship?
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4. The Dred Scott Decision
The 14th amendment was not added to the Constitution until after the Civil War.
Today, we will learn about the Dred Scott Decision and find out how the Supreme Court ruled on whether or not African- Americans were considered American citizens.

5. Who was Dred Scott?
In 1857, the Supreme Court was faced with a case that forced them to decide: are African Americans citizens of this country? Are they entitled to privileges that free white citizens enjoy?
The Dred Scott case was about a slave named Dred Scott from Missouri. While working for his master, Dred Scott had traveled to and lived in the free territories of Wisconsin and Illinois.
When he returned to Missouri, Scott decided to sue for his freedom—he argued that because his master had taken him to a free territory, he should now be a free man.

6. How did the Supreme Court Rule?
The Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice Roger Taney, had to make a decision. Was Dred Scott, a slave, allowed to sue his master for freedom? And if he was allowed to bring his case to court, did his time in free territory make him a free man?
By a vote of five to four, the Supreme Court decided that Scott did not have the right to sue for his freedom in court because he was not a citizen.
Justice Taney declared that no African American, whether slave or free, could ever be a citizen. He argued that giving African-Americans the same rights as white American citizens would lead to violence throughout the nation.

7. Reason for the Ruling
The Supreme Court also ruled that Dred Scott’s time in free territory did not automatically make him a free man.
Because slaves were “property,” white slave owners could take their property anywhere and the government had no right to take away that property .
This right to property was protected by the 5th Amendment to the Constitution, and by that reasoning, Dred Scott was not a free man.

8. Response to the Ruling
In the South, slaveholders were overjoyed to hear the Supreme Court’s ruling. This ruling made it possible for slave owners to take their slaves into any new territory of the U.S. without limits.
In the North, people were stunned and outraged at Justice Taney’s ruling. The New York Tribune, the newspaper, called this decision a “wicked and false judgment.”

9. Check your Understanding
Read the quote from Justice Taney after the ruling on the Dred Scott case. Complete the APPART analysis below using information from today’s class and the quote.
“If black people were entitled to the privileges [of]…citizens, it would … give the persons of the negro race…the fully liberty of speech… [freedom] to hold public meetings upon political affairs and to keep and carry arms wherever they went. And all of this would be done [by] both free and slaves…producing discontent and insubordination [disobedience] among them, and endangering the peace and safety of the state.”
--Roger B. Taney, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (1856)