Dred Scott decision essay

Dred Scott decision is a well known fact of human rights and liberties violation: “the court decided that all people of African ancestry — slaves as well as those who were free — could never become citizens of the United States and therefore could not sue in federal court. The court also ruled that the federal government did not have the power to prohibit slavery in its territories. Scott, needless to say, remained a slave” (PCB, 2009).

At the pre- Civil War times the situation with human rights in America was a complicated one. It will be hard to imagine yourself an Afro-American of that times as now such a court decision is impossible and human rights and liberties could not be violated so roughly. The life of the black inhabitants of the US was very hard, even they were free. Those who were slaves were considered to be the personal property, something like a horse or a chair. Such a humiliating attitude was observed. People were just exchanged on something and nobody looked at Afro-Americans as on human beings, their life worth nothing and the treating was the same. The hardworking on the field or about the house was paid by assault and battery. The cruelty of some white masters was considered to be inhuman. The salves were soothing like toys for their masters. They were playing with their lives  as if they were puppets, marrying those who did not love each other, killing those who did something wrong. There was no justice for the slaves; their master’s was their law and punishment. Many of Afro-Americans of that time were living with the feeling of a constant fear. Their white masters could hardly be called humans as they beated them for every, even minor failures.

I think that constant feeling of fear is not typical for a human being. Everyone of us, despite the race, is a free person, who has certain rights and liberties. The case of Dred Scott, in particular the decision, is the good example to remind, that every human is born to be free and independent. And none of us could be the property of another. The attitude to many slaves was inhuman. Yeah, there were such white masters, whose slaves stayed with them even after they were freed. But those, who suffered on the fields, under the horsewhip of steward, would never return to their masters. Many of them died, because of such awful life conditions and cruel attitude. They were living with a dream to be free. And finally the Civil War gave them a chance to become free and realize their dreams and ideas they could hardly have, while hardworking in the field.

In contemporary world, it will be hardly to imagine that somewhere in well developed countries could exist slavery.

But it does not include in the rest of the world. In some poor Asian and African countries some mothers even sell their children for debts. It was a typical practice for pre- World War II Japan. But the practice of slavery and the case of Dred Scott could never repeat again as it violate all the existing human rights and laws. Such situation could never happen again as every human was born to be free, but never become a property of anyone.