Dred Scott

On April 6, 1846, a slave named Dred Scott and his wife, Harriet, sued for their freedom in St. Louis.

Eleven years later on March 6, 1857, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B. Taney announced the decision in the case of Dred Scott v. Sanford. He stated that Americans of African ancestry were not eligible to be citizens, based on the historical claim that they "had no rights which the white man was bound to respect."

The decision also prohibited the federal government from banning slavery in new territories, a move that historians believed helped hasten the Civil War.

Beginning next month, St. Louis will commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Dred Scott decision with special programs, events and a yearlong exhibit, "A Legacy of Courage: Dred Scott and the Quest for Freedom."

The exhibit, scheduled to open March 3 in the Old Courthouse, where the Scott case was argued more than a century ago, kicks off three days of activities, including the premiere of a 15-minute video on the Dred Scott case produced in partnership with the History Channel. Young student AmeriCorps rangers will argue the case before present-day judges sitting in as the Missouri Supreme Court.

Missouri Congressman William Lacy Clay will deliver a speech, and Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan will also attend the opening event.

Washington University in St. Louis is holding a three-day symposium on the Dred Scott Decision, March 1-3.

Mr. Scott was born in Virginia but eventually came to be owned by St. Louis surgeon John Emerson. He had lived with his owner in the free states of Illinois and Minnesota.

After Mr. Scott and his wife, whom the doctor purchased in Minnesota, returned to St. Louis, Dr. Emerson died. The Scotts sued his widow, Irene, for their freedom based on the fact that they had lived free for a time.

St. Louis' Old Courthouse and the famed Gateway Arch make up what is called the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. Bob Moore, historian for the memorial, part of the National Park Service, said the exhibit includes original court documents, photographs and items related to the case and the lives of the principals involved.

For example, one of the items to be displayed is a bloody smock used by surgeons during that time. Mr. Scott's owner, Dr. Emerson, was a surgeon in the U.S. Army.

Sections of the exhibit will cover not only Mr. Scott's family life but also what life was like in St. Louis for slaves and free blacks.

"The advantage of seeing the exhibit during its initial run is it will have many original papers that will be on display," Mr. Moore said.

Dred Scott and his wife were both illiterate, and so the original documents are signed with an X. Because of the fragile nature of those papers, they will be displayed for two or three weeks at a time and then replaced with facsimiles, Mr. Moore said. Park rangers will notify visitors whether the papers on display at that time are originals.

The exhibit will be displayed in the west wing of the Old Courthouse, the portion of the building where the case was tried in 1847 and 1850.

The original courtroom was divided into two smaller courtrooms in 1855 because of an architectural flaw.

	National Park Service, Jefferson National Expansion Memorial A plaque in St. Louis that commemorates Dred and Harriet Scott. Click photo for larger image.

Slavery in St. Louis was not like slavery in the Deep South, Mr. Moore said.

"There was not much you could do with a slave unless it was a house servant," Mr. Moore said. Many slave owners hired their slaves out to work for other families for a year at a time. St. Louis also had a wealthy free black population, many of whom had lived there since Colonial times and had made their fortunes in real estate.

Barbering was another way free blacks earned money, Mr. Moore said.

"The fashion was to go only to black barbers, who made tremendous fortunes," he said. They owned opulent barber emporiums with gold fixtures, marble tubs and cut-glass chandeliers.

"What we want to show [visitors] is another kind of slavery that existed in urban areas in the South, and St. Louis was one of them," Mr. Moore said. "There were opportunities for interaction with all different types of people."

Probably through this interaction with free blacks and emancipated slaves, Mr. Scott got the idea to sue for his freedom after his owner refused to emancipate him and his family, Mr. Moore said.

Missouri had been honoring the laws of other states by freeing slaves who'd lived in those states for a period of time. More than 300 slaves had won their freedom in this manner prior to Mr. Scott filing his suit.

"It just happened to be his case that ran up against political opposition," Mr. Moore said. By the time the U.S. Supreme Court made its ruling, Mr. Scott's owner, Irene Emerson, had married an abolitionist. She transferred ownership of Mr. Scott and his family to his original owners, the Blow family.

It was the Blows who granted them their freedom in 1857. But a year later, on Sept. 17, 1858, Mr. Scott died of tuberculosis.

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If you go: Dred Scott trips

	National Park Service, Jefferson National Expansion Memorial This St. Louis courtroom is located directly above what was the Dred Scott courtroom, which had to be eliminated to maintain the building's structural integrity. Click photo for larger image.

The Old Courthouse, which today serves as a museum with restored courtrooms and historic galleries, is located at 11 N. Fourth St. in downtown St. Louis. Hours are 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. except Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free.

Park rangers often re-enact the Dred Scott trial in a restored courtroom. Groups can arrange ahead of time to participate in a re-enactment by calling 1-314-655-1700.

The Field House, about five blocks south of the Old Courthouse at 634 S. Broadway, is also commemorating the 150th anniversary. The Field House was the home of attorney Rosswell Field, who took on the Scott case in 1854. It was formerly called the Eugene Field House and Toy Museum. Eugene Field, a noted poet, was the son of Rosswell Field.

The Field House has a recreation of Rosswell Field's law library on the second floor; an interactive display for children and adults called Free and Slave Children -- Contrasts and Comparisons and Narrative Voices, a Dred Scott Multimedia Experience.

Admission to the Field House is $5 for adults and $1 for children under 12. The group rate is $4.50 per person.

Another spot to visit is Calvary Cemetery, where Dred Scott is buried.

This large Catholic cemetery just north of the city off Interstate 70 West is also the final resting place for Civil War Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, explorer William Clark of Lewis and Clark fame and August Busch, founder of Busch Breweries.

To check out other St. Louis sites, go to www.explorestlouis.com.

For more information on the Field House, go to www.eugenefieldhouse.org.

For more information on the Dred Scott activities, go to www.nps.gov.

For more information on the Dred Scott Symposium at Washington University, go to www.wusl.edu.

Free stuff in St. Louis

St. Louis has a number of free attractions, including:

St. Louis Zoo, which has more than 6,000 exotic animals. (stlzoo.org)

St. Louis Art Museum, touted at the first publicly funded art museum in the country. (www.stlouis.art.museum)

Missouri History Museum in Forest Park, which has a brand-new exhibit on the 1904 World's Fair. (www.mohistory.org)

St. Louis Science Center, where visitors can build a replica of the Gateway Arch and see what it's like to live and work on the International Boeing Space Station. (slsc.org)

Grant's Farm, the former homestead of President Ulysses S. Grant, now a 281-acre wildlife preserve with more than 1,000 animals. (www.grantsfarm.com)

Route 66 State Park, the newest state park with trails for walking and biking and a free museum with memorabilia from the heyday of Route 66. (www.mostateparks.com)

Anheuser-Busch Breweries, with tours that include the Brewhouse, the stables of the famed Clydesdales, the lager cellar and the packaging plant. Free samples of their main product or soft drinks are available in the Hospitality Room. (www.budweisertours.com)