Why is this Dred Scott important to Georgia’s history? What was their legacy (this should be at least 3 sentences in a way a 8th grade person would and no slang)
Dred Scott is important to Georgia's history, as well as the history of the entire United States, because of a landmark Supreme Court case known as the Dred Scott v. Sandford decision of 1857. Although Scott himself was not from Georgia, the ruling had profound implications for all states, including Georgia, which was a slave state at the time. The Supreme Court's decision stated that African Americans, whether free or enslaved, were not American citizens and therefore could not sue in federal court. The Court also ruled that Congress lacked the power to ban slavery in the U.S. territories.
Dred Scott's legacy is significant because the decision heightened tensions between the northern and southern states over the issue of slavery. It essentially invalidated the Missouri Compromise, which had tried to balance the powers between free and slave states, and pushed the nation closer to the outbreak of the Civil War. After the war, the Dred Scott decision was effectively overturned by the 13th and 14th Amendments to the United States Constitution, which abolished slavery and established equal protection under the law, thereby granting citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States.