Read the excerpt below from the Supreme Court ruling in the Scott v. Sandford. [T]he legislation and histories of the times, and
the language used in the Declaration of Independence, show, that neither the class of persons who had been imported as slaves, nor their descendants, whether they had become free or not, were then acknowledged as a part of the people. The main subject of the excerpt is
The main point of this excerpt is that African-Americans were not considered US citizens.
In the Supreme Court case Dred Scott vs. Sandford, Scott is suing for his freedom from slavery. This is because his master brought him to the Wisconsin territory, a territory where slavery was outlawed.
However, the Supreme Court ruled against him. The reason why they ruled against him is based on the excerpt above. The Declaration of Independence did not make it blatantly clear that slaves were considered citizens. Since they were not considered citizens, they had no legal rights that slave owners had to respect.
