Dred Scott was born into slavery in Virginia around 1795. In 1830, he was purchased by John and Irene Emerson and taken to St. Louis, Missouri, a slave state. Scott married Harriet Robinson, another enslaved person, and they had two daughters, Eliza and Lizzie.
In 1846, the Emersons moved to the Wisconsin Territory, a free territory. Scott worked for the Emersons in Wisconsin for several years, and he and his family lived as free people. In 1850, the Emersons returned to Missouri with Scott and his family, and they were once again enslaved.
In 1847, Scott sued for his freedom in federal court. He claimed that he was a free man because he had lived in a free territory. The case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled against Scott in 1857. The Court held that African Americans were not U.S. citizens and therefore could not sue in federal court.
The Dred Scott decision was highly controversial, and it further increased tensions between the North and the South. The decision led to calls for the abolition of slavery, and it contributed to the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861.
Dred Scott never achieved his freedom during his lifetime. He died of tuberculosis in 1858, shortly after the Supreme Court had ruled against him for the second time. However, his case had a profound impact on American history, and it helped to shape the course of the Civil War and the abolition of slavery.