Who was dred Scott and what decision was made concerning him?

Scott was the slave of an army Doctor Who was posted to the North, and rather unwisely took his slave with him.

In the North, a slave would be granted his freedom automatically

• if he applied for it. Scott did not apply for it.

Eventually, the two of them returned to slave country, the doctor died, and the slave was left to his family in the will.

It was only then that Scott applied for his freedom, hoping to qualify under the 'Once free, always free' tradition.

The local judges had never dealt with this kind of retro-appeal before, and so it eventually reached the Supreme Court.

Not surprisingly, the Court rejected Scott's application. But their verdict was delivered in terms that greatly provoked the Northern Abolitionists.

The elderly Chief Justice (ironically a one-time Abolitionist) chose this moment to interpret the Constitution precisely as he believed the Founding Fathers would have seen it in 1776. When they declared that a man's property was sacred, they would have included slaves in their definition of property.

This meant that slavery was legal in every state of the Union. Of course, the South rejoiced at this official endorsement of slavery. And the Northern Abolitionists were equally horrified.

The Dred Scott decision is one of the issues that drove the two sides further apart, and closer to war.