05/26/2026
✊🏿 On this day in 1857 — 169 years ago — Dred Scott and his family walked into the St. Louis Circuit Court and walked out free.
Just three months earlier, the U.S. Supreme Court had dealt them a devastating blow in Dred Scott v. Sandford, ruling 7-2 that Scott — an enslaved man who had lived in free states and territories — was not a citizen, had no right to sue, and was simply property. It was one of the most shameful decisions in American legal history.
But Henry Taylor Blow, whose own family had once owned Scott and who had helped finance Scott's legal fight for freedom, refused to let that be the final word. He took ownership of Dred, his wife Harriet, and their daughters — and formally emancipated them all.
Dred Scott worked as a porter at a St. Louis hotel, where guests treated him as a celebrity. He died a free man on September 17, 1858.
His decade-long fight helped expose the moral rot at the heart of slavery, fueled the abolitionist movement, and pushed this nation closer to the reckoning that became the Civil War — and ultimately, emancipation for all.
But the fight didn't end in 1857. It didn't end with the 13th Amendment. It didn't end with the Civil Rights Act. Today, African Americans continue to fight for full equality — in voting rights, criminal justice, economic opportunity, and basic dignity. The Cowley County Democrats stand with them in that fight, as we always have.
We remember Dred and Harriet Scott. Their courage reminds us that the arc of justice doesn't bend on its own — it takes people willing to fight. 🕊️
