The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in the Dred Scott case struck down the Missouri Compromise as unconstitutional, maintaining that Congress had no power to forbid or abolish slavery in the territories. Taney further declared African Americans were not and could never be citizens of the United States.

The Dred Scott case decision was one of the biggest reasons that the South seceded. While the South wanted to eep their slaves, the north wanted to set those slaves free and make them citizens. This led to rising tensions & finally led to he secession of the south.

D) Congress had the power to prohibit slavery in the territories. A) Dred Scott was not a citizen of the United States. How did the Dred Scott decision increase sectional tension? It indicated that the issue of slavery could be determined in any territory long before the moment of statehood.

Southerners approved the Dred Scott decision believing Congress had no right to prohibit slavery in the territories. Abraham Lincoln reacted with disgust to the ruling and was spurred into political action, publicly speaking out against it.

The vote was to keep Dred Scott (and his family) as a slave because of the fifth amendment, but he was released later in May by their next owner. Dred Scott’s Opinion was that he was free because no one owned him and because he was in a free state.

The definition of citizenship. Dred Scott was an enslaved African American who had lived for a while in illinois and in the Wisconsin Territory, both of which banned slavery. Scott sued for his freedom, arguing that since he had lived in a free state and a free territory, he was a free man.