Captive Passage - Departure
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Captive Passage: The Transatlantic Slave Trade and the Making of the Americas

Captive Passage
has been made
possible in part by:
National Endowment for the Humanities
Recognition of
additional sponsors
for this exhibition
can be found by
clicking on
ExhibitionSponsors.


Dred Scott, 19th century
Born a slave around 1800, Dred Scott went to court in 1847 to sue for his freedom after he was taken by his owner from Missouri into the free states of Illinois and Minnesota to live for five years. Many years later, after several appeals and court reversals, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that people of African ancestry could never become citizens of the United States and therefore could not sue in federal court. The court also ruled that the federal government did not have the power to prohibit slavery in its territories. Many Northerners were outraged. The decision helped Abraham Lincoln win the Republican Party's nomination and the subsequent election, which in turn led to the South's secession from the Union.
The sons of Dred Scott's first owner had been childhood friends of Scott and helped pay his legal fees over the years. After the Supreme Court's decision, the brothers purchased Scott and his wife and set them free. Scott died nine months later.
Courtesy of the Missouri Historical Society

Dred Scott

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