6 March 1857
Court decisionSupplement
Dred Scott v. Sandford
United States; Black people and enslaved people
The Supreme Court denied federal citizenship to the class of Black people descended from Africans brought to America and enslaved. It also rejected congressional authority to prohibit slavery in the territories under the Missouri Compromise.
Dates preserve the source’s precision. This entry is part of a selected historical record; its qualifications and sources are retained below.
Context / qualification
The Fourteenth Amendment later overturned the citizenship rule.