1. The Scotts claimed that they should be granted freedom because Dred had lived in Illinois and the Wisconsin Territory for four years, where slavery was illegal, and laws in those jurisdictions said that slave holders gave up their rights to slaves if they stayed for an extended period.
Dred Scott was born into slavery c in Southampton County, Virginia.
In 1818, Dred Scott was taken by Peter Blow and his family, with their five other slaves, to Alabama, where the family ran an unsuccessful farm in a location near Huntsville.
Dred Scott was sold to Dr John Emerson, a surgeon serving in the United States Army, who planned to move to Rock Island, Illinois.
Blow died in 1832, and historians debate whether Dred Scott was sold to Emerson before or after Blow's death.
Some believe that Dred Scott was sold in 1831, while others point to a number of enslaved people in Blow's estate who were sold to Emerson after Blow's death, including one with a name given as Sam, who may be the same person as Dred Scott.
Dred Scott was temporarily successful in his escape as he, much like many other runaway slaves during this time period, "never tried to distance his pursuers, but dodged around among his fellow slaves as long as possible".
In 1833, Emerson and Dred Scott went to Fort Armstrong, in the free state of Illinois.
Since slave marriages had no legal sanction, supporters of Dred Scott later noted that this ceremony was evidence that Dred Scott was being treated as a free man.
In 1846, Dred Scott attempted to purchase his and his family's freedom, offering $300.
Dred Scott ended up filing a freedom suit in federal court, in a case that he appealed to the US Supreme Court.
In 1846, having failed to purchase his freedom, Dred Scott filed a freedom suit in St Louis Circuit Court.
Dred Scott and his wife had resided for two years in free states and free territories, and his eldest daughter had been born on the Mississippi River, between a free state and a free territory.
Dred Scott was listed as the only plaintiff in the case, but his wife, Harriet, had filed separately and their cases were combined.
Dred Scott played a critical role, pushing him to pursue freedom on behalf of their family.
Dred Scott was a frequent churchgoer, and in St Louis, her church pastor connected the Scotts to their first lawyer.
The Dred Scott children were around the age of ten when the case was originally filed.
In 1853, Dred Scott again sued for his freedom, this time under federal law.
Irene Emerson had moved to Massachusetts, and Scott had been transferred to Irene Emerson's brother, John F A Sanford.
Rather than settling issues, as Taney had hoped, the court's ruling in the Dred Scott case increased tensions between pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions in both North and South, further pushing the country toward the brink of civil war.
In 1851, Dred Scott was leased by Charles Edmund LaBeaume, whose sister had married into the Blow family.
Dred Scott worked as a janitor at LaBeaume's law office, which was shared with lawyer Roswell Field.
Dred Scott was represented before the US Supreme Court by Montgomery Blair.
Dred Scott's brother Benjamin was an Associate Supreme Court Justice and wrote one of the two dissents in Dred Scott v Sandford.
Dred Scott's new husband, Calvin C Chaffee, was an abolitionist.
Dred Scott was elected to the US Congress in 1854 and fiercely attacked by pro-slavery newspapers for his apparent hypocrisy in owning slaves.
About a century later, a historian established that John Sanford never legally owned Dred Scott, nor did he serve as executor of Dr Emerson's will.
Dred Scott worked as a porter in a St Louis hotel, but his freedom was short-lived; he died from tuberculosis in September 1858.
Dred Scott was survived by his wife and his two daughters.
Dred Scott was originally interred in Wesleyan Cemetery in St Louis.
Some of Dred Scott's family members have claimed that he was a Catholic.
Harriet Dred Scott was buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Hillsdale, Missouri.
Dred Scott outlived her husband by 18 years, dying on June 17,1876.