Siteseen
Siteseen: American Historama: Dred Scott Decision
Comprehensive summary provides a list of interesting facts and information about the Dred Scott decision that ruled slaves were property.
PBS
Pbs: Dred Scott's Fight for Freedom (1846 1857)
Provides information on Dred Scott and his fight for freedom, and the events leading up to the Supreme Court trial in 1857.
University of Groningen
American History: Essays: Impact of Dred Scott: The Decision
Describes the difficult process the US Supreme Court judges went through in preparing their final decision in the Dred Scott case.
University of Groningen
American History: Essays: Politics and Sectionalism: Scott Versus Sandford
Outlines what happened with the Dred Scott case as it was passed on from the local state court all the way up to the federal Supreme Court, with a final decision being reached in 1857.
University of Groningen
American History: Essays: Impact of Dred Scott: In Federal Judicial System
Describes how the Dred Scott became increasingly significant politically as it progressed through the court system, finally reaching the US Supreme Court.
University of Groningen
American History: Documents: Dred Scott Case
Here you will find the primary source text of the case and the opinions of the Supreme Court Justices in the Scott v Sandford case which ultimately ruled on the constitutionality of the Missouri Compromise.
Thomson Reuters
Find Law: Landmark Decisions
This site details the controversial issues regarding slavery and the effects they had on the Civil War amendments as well as on the fifth amendment. The site discusses events such as the Dred Scott case, the addition of the Civil War...
Wikimedia
Wikipedia: Dred Scott v. Sandford
This site from the Encyclopedia Wikipedia provides information on the Dred Scott case, as it progressed through the Missouri state court, the Federal court system, and the appeal that went to the Supreme Court.
iCivics
I Civics: Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)
This mini-lesson covers the basics of the Supreme Court decision that determined that Dred Scott, having lived in a free territory, was not entitled to his freedom. Students learn about the impact of the Court's decision, and how it was...
Cengage Learning
American Governemnt Documents Collection: Dred Scott vs. John f.a. Sandford
This site provides a complete text of the 1857 Supreme Court decision in the case between Dred Scott and John F.A Sandford.
PBS
Wnet: Thirteen: The Supreme Court: Landmark Cases: Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)
PBS features a summary of the landmark Supreme Court case of Dred Scott v. Sanford which ruled that African Americans are not American citizens, and therefore could not sue in federal court. Decision written by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney.
University of Groningen
American History: Outlines: A Divided Nation
Overview of events and politics surrounding the bitter conflict about slavery in the U.S., including the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Dred Scott Decision.
ClassFlow
Class Flow: Political Divisions
[Free Registration/Login Required] This flipchart details the growing political divisions in the United States in the decade before the Civil War. It includes information on the election of 1856, the Dred Scott Decision, the Lincoln...
Illinois Institute of Technology
Oyez Project: Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)
This U.S. Supreme Court case dealt with the issues of slavery, citizenship, and property rights. It is detailed with an abstract providing a concise summary and a record of the justices that sat on the Court at that time.
Constitutional Rights Foundation
Constitutional Rights Foundation: Moving Toward Equality Under Law
As new free and slave states were admitted to the Union prior to the Civil War, political divisions kept growing, despite attempts to balance the numbers of each. The South pushed for slavery to expand westward, while anti-slavery...
University of Groningen
American History: Outlines: A Divided Nation
This page from the American Revolution Project of the University of Groningen discusses how the 1850s were a time of conflicting ideas between North and South regarding the expansion of slavery. Scroll down to the third paragraph and...
Independence Hall Association
U.s. History: The Southern Argument for Slavery
In order to convince oneself that owning another was defensible, Southerners aruged that there were economic, religious, historical, and legal reaons that slavery was a good thing. Read about some of these justifications in more detail,...
The History Place
The History Place: Abraham Lincoln
This site provides an extensive timeline of the life and work of Abraham Lincoln. Throughout the timeline there are photos that can be enlarged and many, many links to speeches, papers, letters of Lincoln's. The site is very easy to...
Digital History
Digital History: The Lincoln Douglas Debates
Historic debates, both in substance and form, were held between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas in the Illinois Senate race in 1858. Read about the debates, where tht two men stood on the issue of slavery, and its place in the...
Independence Hall Association
U.s. History: The Lincoln Douglas Debates
The Lincoln-Douglas debates in 1858 exemplified the rift in the nation concerning the issue of slavery and who should be able to determine whether states were free or slave. Read about this war of ideas that moved from the stage in...
Library of Congress
Loc: Slaves and the Courts
Slaves and the Courts, 1740-1860 contains just over a hundred pamphlets and books (published between 1772 and 1889) concerning the difficult and troubling experiences of African and African-American slaves in the American colonies and...
Independence Hall Association
U.s. History: From Uneasy Peace to Bitter Conflict
A brief overview of what was in store for the United States after the controversial Dred Scott decision.
US Department of State
Bureau of International Information Programs: History Outline: Sectionalism
Article reviews several conditions of American society that sowed the seeds of civil war, particularly slavery and sectional conflict.
University of Maryland
Voices of Democracy: Abraham Lincoln, "A House Divided" (16 June 1858)
Read the full text of the "House Divided" speech that Lincoln delivered on June 16, 1858, as he accepted the Republican nomination for the U.S.Senate seat from Illinois that was held by Stephen A. Douglas. This speech exemplifies...