Dred Scott Decision

The north and south are too different to ever come together, either all the state's have to become free or slave or we won't be able to thrive as a nation. I have discovered this throughout the election of 1856, at first I was excited to see a change in the nation but I don't even know how to help this nation anymore. John C. Frémot, a Mexican American war hero and abolitionist, ran for the Republican Party and James Buchanan of Pennsylvania was nominated for Democrats. The former president, Millard Filmore, ran for the Know-Nothings. I agree with the Republicans, they think that slavery should be banned from the western territories including Kansas being added as a free state and they don't agree with popular sovereignty. Unfortunately Buchanan won the presidential election by promising he would stop "the agitation of the slavery issue." Although this presidential election once again didn't go the way I hoped I was happily informed by my husband that Frémot received 1/3 of  the popular vote along with 11 northern states. Conflict between the north and south didn't take long to occur, in 1857, Dred Scott, a slave from Missouri, sued for his freedom. The US Supreme Court ruled in the case, my husband told me that Scott's owner had taken him to the free states Illinois and Wisconsin Territory. In the territory slavery was outlawed due to the Missouri compromise so Scott had been living on free land as a slave. The law shouldn't be broken like this! This case made me outraged, if the law broken then what is the point of having it? The rest of the case makes me more frustrated. Scott's case reached the Supreme Court under Roger B Taney, the Chief Justice but the court ruled against Scott. The reasons as to why the court ruled against him make me even angrier; they said that a slave is technically not a citizen therefore they can't sue courts. They considered a slave a piece of property, nothing more. This statement makes me want to leave this country, if we can't see that slaves are human than something needs to happen. I am done with waiting for a change, even the court is denying its own laws. The court said that the Missouri Compromise didn't apply to this situation because it is illegal for congress to take some one's property away from them. This is unjust reasoning because it once again refers to a slave as an item of property rather than a human. The south shouldn't be proud of this, this court case doesn't make any sense. It's as if the south is cheating in the "race" against the north to keep slavery. I think the north should secede from the nation, I don't want to live with the south, they are unfair, unjust and they cheat to get their way. I am done with fighting over slavery, it is starting to affect my family. My very own mother was arrested for breaking the Fugitive Slave law. What I don't understand is if the south can bend the laws then why can't the north. The north and south have been fighting for too long, I wish to stop seeing my family suffer through this tedious fight which is getting this nation nowhere.

"The Dred Scott Case." YouTube. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Feb. 2016.
Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 22 Feb. 2016.