Customer Reviews

Dred Scott and the Politics of Slavery (Landmark Law Cases & American Society)

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This is not the greatest book on the subject, but it offers a very good introduction. The author in his listing of secondary sources tops his bibliography with FehrenbacherThe Dred Scott Case: Its Significance in American Law and Politics which is undoubtedly the best work available on the subject. This little book covers the politics of slavery and the Dred Scott case in less than 160 pages. The print is good, the prose is very readable and easily understood and it is light weight physically.

EARL MALTZ begins with the founding of the U. S. and outlines the position slavery played in the writing of the Constitution. Chapter 2 leads the reader through the controversy of the Missouri Compromise (for a good study of this I recommend Robert Forbes, The Missouri Compromise and Its Aftermath: Slavery and the Meaning of America, through a good discussion of Prigg v. Pennsylvania and Justice Story, and the personal liberty laws vs the Fugitive Slave Laws. Chapter 4 takes the reader very clearly through the entanglements of the territorial problems and the Compromise of 1850.

On page 60 we are introduced to Dred Scott. By page 101 we are introduced to the attorneys arguing before the Supreme Court. Probably the best known was the Maryland attorney who represented Scott, Montgomery Blair. Montgomery was the sone of Kackson's Kitchen Cabinet member, Francis P. Blair, the brother of Union General Frank Blair, and later Lincoln's Postmaster General. Of course, we get a good look at Cheif Justice Roger Taney. For a very bried work the author does an excellent job in introducing a wide range of characters and making the reader feel comfortable with them. No small task.

If I have a problem with this book it is brevity. To cover the impact of the Dred Scott case in 15 pages is asking too much of both the author and the reader. As an introduyctory work I don't think anyone can do better than this book.