Origins of the Dred Scott Case ─ Jacksonian Jurisprudence And the Supreme Court, 1837-1857

Some say the Dred Scott case hinged solely upon slavery. In response Allen (history, U. of Houston) replies that the Chief Justice and his colleagues at the time of the hearing of the case stood in the middle of a complex web of assumptions, agendas and personal and political commitments and reacted out of immediate expediency than with regard to the rights of human beings. Allen examines the contexts of the US Supreme Court in the years leading to the 1857 decision at an intellectual as well as political level, a world that was deeply mired in the futile effort to be all things to all factions, ranging from slave-holders to states' rights advocates, federalists, economic developers expecting a new corporate order, and the remains of the Jacksonian democratic enthusiasts. The result is a richer understanding of the real reasoning behind subjugation. Annotation c2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)