Among the most infamous U.S. Supreme Court decisions is Dred Scott v. Sandford . Despite the case's signal importance as a turning point in America's history; the lives of the slave litigants have receded to the margins of the record; as conventional accounts have focused on the case's judges and lawyers. In telling the life of Harriet; Dred's wife and co-litigant in the case; this book provides a compensatory history to the generations of work that missed key sources only recently brought to light. Moreover; it gives insight into the reasons and ways that slaves used the courts to establish their freedom. A remarkable piece of historical detective work; Mrs. Dred Scott chronicles Harriet's life from her adolescence on the 1830s Minnesota-Wisconsin frontier; to slavery-era St. Louis; through the eleven years of legal wrangling that ended with the high court's notorious decision. The book not only recovers her story; but also reveals that Harriet may well have been the lynchpin in this pivotal episode in American legal history. Reconstructing Harriet Scott's life through innovative readings of journals; military records; court dockets; and even frontier store ledgers; VanderVelde offers a stunningly detailed account that is at once a rich portrait of slave life; an engrossing legal drama; and a provocative reassessment of a central event in U.S. constitutional history. More than a biography; the book is a deep social history that freshly illuminates some of the major issues confronting antebellum America; including the status of women; slaves; Free Blacks; and Native Americans.
#1903821 in Books Jenna Weissman Joselit 2007-12-03Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 5.50 x .80 x 8.10l; .43 #File Name: 0195333071144 pagesParade of Faiths Immigration and American Religion
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