Eliza and Lizzie, children of Dred Scott [top]; Dred Scott [and] his wife, Harriet

Item

Title: Eliza and Lizzie, children of Dred Scott [top]; Dred Scott [and] his wife, Harriet
Description: The newspaper cover refers to the legal case Dred Scott v. John F.A. Sandford, which brought the issue of Black citizenship to the U.S. Supreme Court and made the formerly enslaved Dred Scott and his family a focus of the public eye. On March 6, 1857, the Supreme Court ruled that both enslaved and free people of black African descent in America were not considered to be citizens under the U.S. Consitution, and thus were not recipients of the document’s rights and privileges—including the right to own and use guns. The Second Amendment was clearly at top of mind for the presiding judges, as the Court’s written decision includes the right to "to keep and carry arms wherever [Black people] went" amongst a description of the frightening consequences of ruling in Scott's favor. This newspaper cover page (published only a few months after Scott's case was struck down) describes Scott and his family in a dehumanizing manner, detailing how they were more or less harassed and forced to be photographed for the paper.
Creator: Frank Leslie (publisher); John H. Fitzgibbon (photographer); Joseph H. Brightly (wood engraver); Holcomb (wood engraver) See all items with this value
Publisher: The New York Public Library
Date: June 27, 1857 See all items with this value
Type: Illustration
Format: Newspaper cover, dimensions unknown
Language: English
Subject: New York; Dred Scott; antislavery movements; United States citizenship; Reconstruction See all items with this value
Temporal Coverage: 1857
Rights: This item is in the public domain under the laws of the United States.

Item sets: Race and the Second Amendment

Site pages: A Free State? The Second Amendment and Anti-Blackness in America’s Past and Present

Media: Eliza and Lizzie, children of Dred Scott [top]; Dred Scott [and] his wife, Harriet

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Title	Class
Race and the Second Amendment	Collection