Dred Scott v. Sandford: A Brief History with Documents

Perhaps no other Supreme Court decision has had the political impact of Dred Scott v. Sandford. Using a variety of documents that reflect regional opinions and political debates, Paul Finkelman examines the 1857 decision that helped set in motion the events that eventually led to a new birth of freedom and the abolition of slavery in the United States.

Paul Finkelman is the author of An Imperfect Union: Slavery, Federalism, and Comity (1981); Slavery in the Courtroom (1985), which received the Joseph L. Andrews Award from the American Association of Law Libraries; and His Soul Goes Marching On: Responses to John Brown and the Harpers Ferry Raid (1995), which was a History Book Club selection. He has published numerous articles on American legal history and race relations and lectures frequently on the role of race in American legal development. In 1995, he was designated Virginia Historian of the Year by the Virginia Social Science Association.