preview

Dred Scott's Fugitive Slave Law

Decent Essays

As the town of Quincy had been for quite a time an anti-slavery area, Zachariah could try and gain his freedom. His journey to Illinois foreshadowed the parallel but famous case of Dred Scott. Dred Scott, himself a Missouri slave was taken to Illinois several times by his owner in 1840s. The anti-slave forces made a constitutional case for his citizenship and freedom that reached the U.S. Supreme Court. The Dred Scott affair, decided in 1857, amply showed that the U.S. Supreme Court was unwilling to give blacks American citizenship and that even moving to a Free State
did not make them free. This was a court test of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 in which Free States were obliged by law to return
slaves. In their holding (1857), the highest …show more content…

John would have to learn, as with all the other Islay immigrants, how to transport his goods by wagon up and down very steep hills. His farm, being right on the foothills had steep descents in either direction.
The technique was the following: In going down hill, one wheel was fixed with a shoe that itself was
attached to the body of the wagon. With the wheel fixed the journey was slower but safer. Uphill a
"trailing dog" or sprag was placed at the back of the wagon so the horses could rest as needed.
In the 23 years leading up to the time of Zachariah's arrival, John Patterson built a mature farm with 68 acres under cultivation and a full 90 acres of the original 100 acres improved. He had 40 acres of spring wheat, 8 acres of oats as well as an abundance of barley, peas, turnips and potatoes all requiring Zachariah's help. No doubt Zachariah would also need to attend the livestock of the farm which included 6 cows, 5 horses, 14 pigs and 6 sheep and the repairing of all the fences around the 10 acres of pasture.
As for farm derived products, necessary for living and getting through a challenging winter,

Get Access