(10) 1857 Dred Scott Case

The Dred Scott Decision, otherwise known as the 1857 Dred Scott Case, was a legal case in which the United States Supreme Court decreed 7-2 that a slave who had resided in a free state was not thereby entitled to their freedom. This was a catastrophic ruling because it implied that African Americans were not and could not ever be considered citizens of the United States, dehumanizing them. One of the two justices who voted against the ruling, John McLean, was born in New Jersey.