On June 30, 1847, Dred Scott and his wife Harriet filed a lawsuit in the St. Louis Circuit Court seeking their freedom. They argued that their residence in free territories should grant them emancipation. This case escalated to the U.S. Supreme Court, resulting in the infamous 1857 decision declaring that African Americans could not be U.S. citizens. The ruling intensified national tensions over slavery, contributing to the onset of the Civil War. New Pittsburgh Courier
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