Scot Case

Before and After the Project of Nation Building

Sending out a broadcaster of Radio was hot news of media one month ago. He was sent out because of saying offensive things about a black man, this event makes me thanking about the changes of condition of African Americans in USA. Dred Scot is a good example in the History of America that shows how white thought and may think about them.

Dred Scot is one of the most infamous causes of United States history. The processes of his sue in the courts of USA although longed about 10 years but it resulted to two consequences. First of all declaring the attitudes of Euro settlements (whites) about African American (blacks); I mean up to that time American claim about all the citizens was equal rights, the mottos like Democracy, Liberalism and Freedom are rooted in this claim, but Dred Scot case showed that all of the ethnicity groups of this multi ethnical country are not supported equally. About the second consequence it could be said that Dred Scot case was one of the main the pretexts of Civil Wars, the first sparks of the firing war that destroyed all of the new flourished civilization of South.

Scot's Life
Dred Scot was born in a slave family in Virginia in about 1800. He moved with his owner, Peter Blow, to St. Louis (Missouri) in 1830, where he sold to John Emerson, a U.S. Army surgeon. In 1836 he moved to Minnesota, the land that banned slavery under the Missouri Compromise, with his master and married with a slave. In 1837 Emerson left Minnesota for Missouri and after one year Scat family joined him. In 1846 Scat sued to gain his freedom for himself and his family after Emerson died, he argued that living in Minnesota had made him and his family free according to Missouri Compromise. According to this compromise slavery in some states and north of Missouri prohibited. Scot in the first court could gain the freedom but Mr. Sanford, brother in law of Mr. Emerson appealed to the Supreme Court and this result changed and Scat never gained his right just by buying.

The Right of Citizenship as the Race
Scot appealed to four courts St. Louis Circuit Court, Missouri Supreme Court, Federal Court and U.S. Supreme Court. Although Scot case was represented by very famous men like Montgomery Blair and George T. Curtis but finally they couldn't do anything. The main subject was the citizenship right of Scot that has been addressed in ratification of the Constitution of the United States in 1787. At that time some or all adult black males could vote in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont and New York, and blacks had held public office in Ohio and Massachusetts.
In March 1857, the court ruled in a seven to 20 decision that Scot was still a slave and there fore not entitled to sue in court. Justice Taney in 54- page majority opinion of the court argued that free blacks could never be U. S. citizens. He argued that blacks are not included and was not intended to be included, under the word "citizens" in the Constitution. Taney based this unprecedented legal argument entirely on race. So as Scat was not a citizen of United State he could not sue his freedom in Supreme Court. He just nine month of buying his freedom by the sons of Blow, the old master, died in 1858.

Gaining the Right that was Given 10 Years Ago
There is an upset question that why Scot family fallowed Mr. Emerson in 1338. As I said Scot was a free man in Minnesota and he could choice another job out of working as a servant. So why he accept to join the Emerson family in slavery state, Missouri, when he didn't have any obligation?
One of the possible answers could be unknowing, he didn't know about his freeman rights so, or maybe he knew but his freedom in that time was just fiscally and not mentally! I mean that Scot didn't believe his freedom in all of domination of his life!
Another answer could be the feel of blacks about their masters that formed toward history of slavery; they think that they have to be faithful about their masters always even after giving freedom right. And I think the problem of African Americans in United States is rooted from this form of freedom that they did not Gain it but it was given them. In fact it could be said that beyond the injustice pressure of whites, blacks themselves had passive role in believing the freedom.
Finally I think the Scot's unknowing rooted in one of the recent communication theories, information gap. According to this theory information is extended in the society and among all of the people equally but the using and understanding it is not same and it dependents on the social statue of them. Wealthy, education and race are some of the main factors that determined the social statue. People fallow that new information in society firstly, as much as their understanding that about the blacks in 19th century it could be said that was so weak because they could not use of educational system in majority. Secondly people mention the information as much as their importance statue in the society, when blacks are calculated in the society as inferior statue, automatically they go away of getting information of society. Obviously the black that were not saw in the American Society as Slave, didn't care about the information. The process of their understanding about laws and social affairs was time consuming and this time so longed that Scot could not gain his freedom right, the right that he was received it 10 years ago!

The Process of Nation Building
After the Republican and northern victory, Congress and the states passed the Civil War amendments to overturn Scot. In 1865, slavery abolished in United States, in 1964 Civil Right Act and in 1965 the Voting Right Act happened. But these events were not actions to redress an injustice done to blacks! Even civil wars that seem for slavery were for pursuing the economic interests of Southerns and Northerns. The process of calculating African Americans as citizens is a part of nation building in America, this act also is fallowed for American process. The reactions about Affirmative Action by Republicans acknowledge this point. The process of nation Building makes strong narrative of being American for all of the residents of the country. So the situation of 1850, now is changed; the situation that made the injustice sentence: "Blacks could never be citizens of the united states, even if they were born in the country and considered to be citizens of the states in which they lived." Now we face to some meaningful reactions about Blacks and it seems that these reactions are in parallel of putting the common sense among the all of ethnicities in USA, nor real respect to them.