Editing Dred Scott (section)

==Abolitionist aid to Scott's case==
[[Image:Dred Scott grave.JPG|thumb|right|Dred Scott's grave in [[Calvary Cemetery (St. Louis)|Calvary Cemetery]], prior to its replacement by a towering monument on Sep 30, 2023<ref name="stltoday">{{Cite web|url=https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/government-politics/new-memorial-at-dred-scotts-gravesite-in-st-louis-is-honorable-marker-of-his-legacy/article_7b6f7a3a-5bbf-11ee-9cfe-0ff5656aa61e.html |title=New memorial at Dred Scott's gravesite in St. Louis is 'honorable' marker of his legacy |date=September 27, 2023 }}</ref>]]
Scott's freedom suit before the state courts was backed financially by Peter Blow's adult children, who had turned against slavery in the decade since they sold Dred Scott. [[Henry Taylor Blow]] was elected as a Republican Congressman after the Civil War, [[Charlotte Taylor Blow Charless|Charlotte Taylor Blow]] married the son of an abolitionist newspaper editor, and Martha Ella Blow married [[Charles D. Drake]], one of Scott's lawyers who was elected by the state legislature as a Republican US Senator. Members of the Blow family signed as security for Scott's legal fees and secured the services of local lawyers. While the case was pending, the St. Louis County sheriff held these payments in escrow and leased Scott out for fees.

In 1851, Scott was leased by Charles Edmund LaBeaume, whose sister had married into the Blow family.<ref name="Missouri Digital Heritage" /> Scott worked as a janitor at LaBeaume's law office, which was shared with lawyer [[Roswell Field]].<ref name="Ehrlich 1968">{{Cite journal|title = Was the Dred Scott Case Valid?|last = Ehrlich|first = Walter|date = September 1968|journal = The Journal of American History|volume = 55|issue = 2|doi = 10.2307/1899556|pages = 256–265|jstor = 1899556}}</ref>

After the Missouri Supreme Court decision ruled against the Scotts, the Blow family concluded that the case was hopeless and decided that they could no longer pay Scott's legal fees. Roswell Field agreed to represent Scott ''[[pro bono]]'' before the federal courts. Scott was represented before the U.S. Supreme Court by [[Montgomery Blair]]. (Blair later served in President [[Abraham Lincoln]]'s cabinet as [[United States Postmaster General|Postmaster General]].) Assisting Blair was attorney [[George Ticknor Curtis|George Curtis]]. His brother [[Benjamin Robbins Curtis|Benjamin]] was an Associate Supreme Court Justice and wrote one of the two dissents in ''Dred Scott v. Sandford''.<ref name="Missouri Digital Heritage" />

In 1850, Irene Emerson remarried and moved to [[Springfield, Massachusetts]]. Her new husband, [[Calvin C. Chaffee]], was an [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionist]]. He was elected to the U.S. Congress in 1854 and fiercely attacked by pro-slavery newspapers for his apparent hypocrisy in owning slaves.

Given the complicated facts of the Dred Scott case, some observers on both sides raised suspicions of collusion to create a [[Test case (law)|test case]]. Abolitionist newspapers charged that slaveholders colluded to name a New Yorker as defendant, while pro-slavery newspapers charged collusion on the abolitionist side.<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal|url = http://chaselaw.nku.edu/content/dam/chaselaw/docs/academics/lawreview/v41/7-Hardy.pdf|title = Dred Scott, John San(d)ford, and the Case for Collusion|last = Hardy|first = David T.|date = 2012|journal = Northern Kentucky Law Review|volume = 41|issue = 1|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20151010063026/http://chaselaw.nku.edu/content/dam/chaselaw/docs/academics/lawreview/v41/7-Hardy.pdf|archive-date = October 10, 2015|url-status = dead|df = mdy-all}}</ref>

About a century later, a historian established that John Sanford never legally owned Dred Scott, nor did he serve as executor of Dr. Emerson's will.<ref name="Ehrlich 1968" /> It was unnecessary to find a New Yorker to secure diversity jurisdiction of the federal courts, as Irene Emerson Chaffee (still legally the owner) had become a resident of Massachusetts. After the U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Roswell Field advised Dr. Chaffee that Mrs. Chaffee had full powers over Scott.<ref name=":3" /> However, Sanford had been involved in the case since the beginning, as he had secured a lawyer to defend Mrs. Emerson in the original state lawsuit before she married Chaffee.<ref name="Fehrenbacher 2001" />