**** The Official Site of The Dred Scott Heritage Foundation
This posting will be Part 16 of the "Black History | Harmon Loft" series of this journal/ blog ... to highlight the life and court cases of Dred Scott (wikipedia), and his wife, Harriet, they were American slaves. This story and case in history, should be an inspiration to people of all races today, let it be a lesson of sort, if anything, if you are a working class person. Because slavery has alwayz been a part of our system, in some form, just like racism still is, and bigger than ever today, it's just cleverly repackaged and redesigned, to be larger and broader than anything of past ... today more subtle and sugarcoated. Again, for the viewer that never been to this journal/ series ... it is in memory and totally inspired by my friend, Harmon Loft ... he was the black history buff, and known for it in his New York community, back in the 1960s/ 1970s. If you had a question about related history ... you could ask this guy, I was only a teen at the time, never knew any of this, or history for that matter, and listening to his stories were interesting. I believe Harmon (aka "Red" to most), may have been originally from Chicago, not sure, he told me things about being a kid on the West Side of Chicago, he didn't really know his dad, who he heard was an alcoholic, so Harmon and his kid sister were raised by mom basically. His mom had some disease called sarcoidosis, she died, him and his sister was sent to their auntie's place in Harlem/ NYC, where he lived his latter teen years in the area of 123rd St & Lenox Ave, he was at least 25 years older than me, and like a mentor to me ... he helped me when in trouble, let me set up a shoe- shine stand in his pool/ billiards hall, and treated me like a son (he never had kids or married that I knew of ... but had some close female companions), taught me some things, and how to make money.
The life of Dred Scott was interesting ... I guess back then, it depended on who was your owner, to the slave, of what you could do or not, or what kind of duties/ chores you were assigned. I figured the least you could hope for, is having a master/ owner as lenient as possible, because you had nothing else, period ... but to be pushed around, used, raped, sold/ traded/ leased out, punished/ beaten, killed, or whatever. Scott was a hustler though, and considered as a "skilled slave", and had some situations, where he was able to use his head and take advantage of, to at least try to make what life he had less miserable. When he seen opportunity, he jumped all over it, including escaping slavery, if he could, and was savvy enough to lease out his services while still being owned, and pocketing all the money, even attempting to buy his freedom ... and sharp enough to legally challenge the crummy system. Historically, there were thousands of slaves actually, that were bucking slavery all over the place, while some others, just decided to submit, and accept it as the only way to live ... folks like Dred were a bolt of revolt, and you had many of them. The Dred Scott case was so well known, because it involved the US Supreme Court, and Chief Justice R.B. Taney, decided that a slave can never be a citizen, or qualify legally, for any rights, freedom whatsoever, etc. Between court cases from lower courts to the top, Dred went from slave to free, and back to slave, then back to free, depending on which territory he was taken to by his owners. But moving around like that also had its advantages, and gave opportunity, instead of just spending decades on some plantation, and experiencing or seeing nothing different. And just like the past, aligning yourself with thinkers and doers, that have that bolt in them, is a plus, Dred's wife, Harriet, was one like that too.
The reason this Supreme Court case was so importante, is because of the amount of rage it inspired, and contributed to making the Civil War get on the road. Even though Scott lost this case, the nation won, in that respect, because any rights past due to come about, started taking shape then and there. Scott didn't die on his knees or at the end of a rope, he died from tuberculosis, which was common in those dayz, and he lived his life making decisions for himself. He also never gave up on taking cases to the courts, and had a friendship with the kids of his former owner/ master, who were his age, that those kids ended up funding his legal case expenses, and inspiring abolition to the new blood/ generation. Dred was gonna make it either way, he's tasted half assed freedom and full slavery, both ... him and Harriet were doing it mostly for their 2 daughters, to try to bring better times for them. He tried to purchase freedom for their girls/ kids mainly, from Mrs. Emerson, their owner, and widow of US Army surgeon, Dr. John Emerson. Mrs. Emerson was still leasing Dred and Harriet out as slaves, even though they were no longer in prime age, to try to milk every nickel she could out of them, and Dred and Harriet knew, she looked at their daughters as commodity/ asset money makers. Eventually, at the end, a couple years before Dred's death, he managed to buy him and his wife and daughters freedom. This is the same way all working classes are looked at today by the usual extreme capitalists and oligarchs ... it's still the same master/ slave mentality today, as back then ... this mentality abuses all working classes of today, unjustly incarcerates the poor, and uses them through prison labour, and endless debt, etc, as well as all their family members. The point is, looking at all we are facing in 2020, revolt on a large scale is way past due. If we do not challenge what we are facing now, our children will get trampled on more than we are, to come ... this is why Scott's life and cases, including things like the Civil War, are a good lesson.
Some read and video below. First video is a brief clip, to introduce the great- great- granddaughter of Dred and Harriet, today ... Lynne M. Jackson. I also chose a video below that of a known expert in race relations, criminal/ civil procedure, constitutional law, and civil rights ... to review Scott's Supreme Court case, out of several I reviewed, from Professor of Law @ The George Washington University Law School, Christopher A. Bracey ... I thought he done a great job reviewing the case, Scott family, and condition. Importantly in the 2nd half of the video, Bracey points out so many legal flaws with the court/ Taney's decision, none was based on case/ precedent/ law, but opinion/ view only. Basically you had a Supreme Court, that was ignoring law and the Constitution.
Word Out ....
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**** Early voting is underway in Texas now through the 28th of February, for the March 3rd primary season voting ... GET OUT TO VOTE, regardless of how much impact you feel your vote has ... you can bet Dred and Harriet Scott would have loved to had the chance to vote ... it's one of the few rights you still have. I'm out on my way after I post this, to vote for Senator Elizabeth Warren, for the Democratic Presidential nomination, even though I know she is trailing Senator Bernie Sanders, and I love Bernie Sanders, voted for Bernie in the 2016 primary season, but been waiting for Warren to run for years, because of her unique skills/ background. I committed to voting Warren, if she ran, and she did, before Bernie even announced he's running for 2020 nomination, so I done what I promised. And I will be first in line to vote for Bernie in November, if he gets the nomination, for sure. Even if Bernie has 90%+ of voters, understand, that Wall St/ banks/ corporations, the establishment of the Democratic Party, and their Superdelegates, corporate media, smear and fear ads, and others, may/ will all try to interfere with him getting the nomination, so the voters need to stand strong, and pound and push very very hard. Bernie is despised by big money and the establishment, and they will encourage other candidates to stay in the race long as possible, and have as many as they can in the race, just to try to lessen the amount of votes Bernie gets, if anything.
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***** usa.usembassy.de : INTRODUCTION TO THE COURT OPINION ON THE DREDD SCOTT CASE | DRED SCOTT V. SANDFORD (1857)
STL LIVE Dred Scott Heritage Foundation 1 of 2 ... Thanx to STL TV
Black History Month Special: 'The Dred Scott Case' 2/3/16 ... Thanx to Entertain_DC
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***** PD/ RCJ: "BLACK HISTORY | HARMON LOFT" ... PART'S 15 THRU 1
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**** Photo to the right is Lynne M. Jackson ... in front of the statue outside the St. Louis old courthouse, of her great- great- grandparents, Dred & Harriet Scott
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***** RANCH CHIMP JOURNAL "WELCOME" POST
***** RCJ MUSIC/ ART'S HONOUR ROLL SOCIETY (my hand- selected music/ arts picks)
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