Today in Labor History May 26, 1857: Dred Scott was freed from slavery. Scott is most well-known because of the infamous Dred Scott Supreme Court decision. He had sued for his family’s freedom, arguing that they had lived four years in the north, where slavery was illegal. The Court ruled 7-2 that people of African descent weren’t U.S. citizens and thus had no standing before the court. Scott’s lawsuit was funded by the children of Peter Blow, who had turned against slavery in the years since their father had sold the Scotts to John Emerson. After the ruling, Emerson’s wife and her new husband, who was an abolitionist, deeded the Scotts back to the Blow children. They manumitted the Scotts on May 26, 1857. However, Dred Scott died from tuberculosis fourteen months later.

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