Dred Scott’s great-great-granddaughter
By Katie Pelech
Photograph by Dilip Vishwanat
The story does not come neatly packaged. Lynne Jackson tells it in huge, detailed chunks, diverging here, elaborating there. After all, she’s spent much of her life fleshing out this story: the life of Dred Scott, a slave whose petition for freedom started in St. Louis and was struck down time and time again between 1847 and 1857, stoking national abolitionist fervor higher with every slam of the gavel. He’s her hero and her ancestor—her great-great-grandfather on her father’s side. As the 150th anniversary of the final Dred Scott decision, March 6, approaches, she is reinvigorating a tale long relegated to dusty library carrels and recapturing the passion it inspired.
Do you remember when you first heard the Dred Scott story? I was probably too young. But I do remember that, when I was 5, they did a reenactment at the Old Courthouse. It got national coverage, so with all the lights and flashes and cameras I knew something big was happening. As we got older, we learned the case in school, at home and at church. It was just part of our lives; it was who we were.
Have you ever felt burdened by your history? No. It is a responsibility, though. I always knew about the trial, but I didn’t know the rest of the story, so in 1995 I began to dig a little deeper. I became familiar with the key players: John Emerson [a U.S. Army surgeon who purchased Dred Scott and his wife, Harriet], the Blow family [the original owners] and Roswell Field [Scott’s attorney], who is absolutely crucial to this story. Without him looking at the case and feeling that there was a great injustice done, it never would’ve gotten to the U.S. Supreme Court.
What was the immediate impact of the 1857 Supreme Court decision? Certainly without the case there would not have been the uproar of the abolitionists. The whole thing was a catalyst for the Civil War. Within the case, there was the striking down of the Missouri Compromise, and that got a lot of people quite upset. The case created a rift in our nation, and that division still resonates today.
Can the case help mend that division? The case originated in St. Louis, and we’d like to see the healing start here. If you look deep, you’ll still see racism and prejudice—but doors have opened. Today we’re looking to go the rest of the way, to get rid of the scab that’s been left and really have equality and justice. It’s a huge problem, but there are really amazing people who are willing to talk about it, to unveil and correct it. This anniversary is another moment in time, the way it was the day of the decision. We need to see what we’ll do with our moment.
How do you intend to mark the anniversary of the Supreme Court decision? I started the Dred Scott Heritage Foundation [dredscottfoundation.org] last summer to finance the 150th-anniversary commemoration, and we’re hoping to commission a statue of Dred Scott for the city of St. Louis. Washington University is going to hold a symposium on March 1, 2 and 3, bringing in top scholars to talk about the Dred Scott case. We hope to use the momentum of the anniversary year as a catalyst for reconciliation efforts. We don’t want to just say, “Gee, it was 150 years ago. That’s nice,” and then go back to business as usual.
What have you learned that the general public does not know? Harriet and Dred were actually married by her owner, who was a justice of the peace. So they had a wedding, which was unusual at the time. I get a sense that they wanted to “do it right” for their family and for their girls. Some people say, “Why didn’t he run away when he was in free territory and could have?” I personally don’t think that, as the father and the head of the household, he could subject his wife and young daughters to a life like that. I think he wanted to do it the honorable way.
Dred Scott and John Emerson must have respected each other to some degree. Scott left free territory to be with the Emersons, and he waited until Emerson’s death to sue his widow, Irene, for freedom. It’s interesting: Irene Emerson’s middle name was Elizabeth, or Eliza, and Dred and Harriet named their first daughter Eliza. There’s also a story about needing a blanket. They were traveling through Wisconsin, and Harriet was pregnant. Dr. Emerson got into a fight over wanting a heater for her.
What about his wife—where did she stand? You do get a sense from her that, after her husband died, perhaps she was more interested in what was going to happen to her than to her slaves. As far as I know, Dred and Harriet were her only slaves. If she let them go, what would she do for money?
We know that she left them in the care of her brother and went off to Massachusetts, where she met and married the congressman Dr. Calvin Chaffee. He made his wife give up all rights to the Scotts, because he was a staunch abolitionist. He didn’t know about the slaves till February of 1857. Dred, Harriet and their daughters were given to Peter Blow, son of the original owner, who then freed them. By pursuing what was right, the right thing happened to them at the end.
