Editing Dred Scott v. Sandford (section)

===Dred Scott and John Emerson===
{{main|Dred Scott}}
[[File:Oil on Canvas Portrait of Dred Scott (cropped).jpg|thumb|Dred Scott]]
[[Dred Scott]] was born a [[History of slavery in Virginia|slave in Virginia]] around 1799.<ref>{{Britannica |958552 |Dred Scott |Melvin I. Urofsky}}</ref> Little is known of his early years.<ref>Earl M. Maltz, ''Dred Scott and the Politics of Slavery'' (2007)</ref> His owner, Peter Blow, moved to [[Alabama]] in 1818, taking his six slaves along to work a farm near [[Huntsville, Alabama|Huntsville]]. In 1830, Blow gave up farming and settled in [[St. Louis, Missouri]], where he sold Scott to U.S. Army surgeon Dr. John Emerson.<ref name="Missouri Digital Heritage">{{cite web|title=Missouri's Dred Scott Case, 1846–1857|url=https://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/resources/africanamerican/scott/scott.asp|website=Missouri Digital Heritage: African American History Initiative|access-date=July 15, 2015}}</ref> After purchasing Scott, Emerson took him to [[Fort Armstrong, Illinois|Fort Armstrong]] in Illinois. A [[Free state (United States)|free state]], Illinois had been free as a territory under the [[Northwest Ordinance]] of 1787 and had prohibited slavery in [[Constitution of Illinois|its constitution]] in 1819 when it was admitted as a state.

In 1836, Emerson moved with Scott from Illinois to [[Fort Snelling]] in the [[Wisconsin territory]] in what has become the state of [[Minnesota]]. Slavery in the Wisconsin Territory (some of which, including Fort Snelling, was part of the Louisiana Purchase) was prohibited by the U.S. Congress under the Missouri Compromise. During his stay at Fort Snelling, Scott married [[Harriet Robinson Scott|Harriet Robinson]] in a civil ceremony by Harriet's owner, Major Lawrence Taliaferro, a justice of the peace who was also an [[Indian agent]]. The ceremony would have been unnecessary had Dred Scott been a slave, as slave marriages had no recognition in the law.{{sfnp|Finkelman|2007}}<ref name="Missouri Digital Heritage"/>

In 1837, the army ordered Emerson to [[Jefferson Barracks|Jefferson Barracks Military Post]], south of St. Louis. Emerson left Scott and his wife at Fort Snelling, where he leased their services out for profit. By hiring Scott out in a free state, Emerson was effectively bringing the institution of slavery into a free state, which was a direct violation of the Missouri Compromise, the Northwest Ordinance, and the Wisconsin Enabling Act.{{sfnp|Finkelman|2007}}

==== Irene Sanford Emerson ====
Before the end of the year, the army reassigned Emerson to [[Fort Jesup]] in [[Louisiana]], where Emerson married Eliza Irene Sanford in February 1838. Emerson sent for Scott and Harriet, who proceeded to Louisiana to serve their master and his wife. Within months, Emerson was transferred back to Fort Snelling. While en route to Fort Snelling, Scott's daughter Eliza was born on a steamboat under way on the Mississippi River between Illinois and what would become Iowa. Because Eliza was born in free territory, she was technically born as a free person under both federal and state laws. Upon entering Louisiana, the Scotts could have sued for their freedom, but did not. One scholar suggests that, in all likelihood, the Scotts would have been granted their freedom by a Louisiana court, as it had respected laws of free states that slaveholders forfeited their right to slaves if they brought them in for extended periods. This had been the holding in Louisiana state courts for more than 20 years.{{sfnp|Finkelman|2007}}

Toward the end of 1838, the army reassigned Emerson back to Fort Snelling. By 1840, Emerson's wife Irene returned to St. Louis with their slaves, while Dr. Emerson served in the [[Seminole War]]. While in St. Louis, she hired them out. In 1842, Emerson left the army. After he died in the Iowa Territory in 1843, his widow Irene inherited his estate, including the Scotts. For three years after John Emerson's death, she continued to lease out the Scotts as hired slaves. In 1846, Scott [[Manumission#United States|attempted to purchase]] his and his family's freedom, but Irene Emerson refused, prompting Scott to resort to legal recourse.<ref name="Fehrenbacher 2001">Don E. Fehrenbacher, ''The Dred Scott Case: Its Significance in American Law and Politics'' (2001)</ref>