8 million of the 2.5 million enslaved Africans employed in American agriculture working on cotton plantations (Dodson). The economic structure of each plantation was part of a larger national and even international political economy. For example, the cotton plantation economy is frequently regarded as a significant part of Southern economy. Nevertheless, cotton was not only the economic foundation of antebellum South, but also that of the United States, a country that was competing for economic leadership in the global political economy. The profitability of slave economy led to its perpetuation. Indeed, history has shown that an economically profitable situation can often be unfair unjust or immoral, and can only be ended by drastic political measures. In the case of the South, it was the abolition of slavery. The Dred Scott case originated in the state courts of Missouri in 1846 as a slave's attempt to gain his independence from his mistress, Mrs. Irene Emerson, widow of Dr. John Emerson who had purchased Dred Scott and his wife, Harriet...
Louis. Dred Scott was unsuccessful because the court claimed that because he did not own property he had no right to sue his owner. Chief Justice Roger B. Taney of the Supreme Court announced his decision in 1857, 11 years after the case was sparked. Moreover, this case gave rise to controversies regarding its legitimacy and authenticity in the sense that there were many voices that claimed it was an artificial construction meant to raise questions regarding the issue of slavery (Ehrlich: 257). Indeed, this decision of the Supreme Court would play a significant role in bringing about the Civil War (Ehrlich: 265).
Conrad, Alfred H.; Meyer, John R. (1958). The Economics of Slavery in the Ante Bellum South. The Journal of Political Economy, 66(2), 95-130.
Dodson, Howard (2003). How Slavery Helped Build a World Economy. In Jubilee: The Emergence of African-American Culture. New York: National Geographic Books.
Ehrlich, Walter (1968). Was the Dred Scott Case Valid? The…
