Dred Scott first went to trial to sue for his freedom in 1847. Ten years later, after a decade of appeals and court reversals, his case was finally brought before the United States Supreme Court.

Researchers found nearly 300 similar suits between 1814 and 1860, and more than a third of these people achieved their ...

A gifted slave whose name adorns the 19th century's most celebrated legal case, Dred Scott claimed that his temporary residence in a free state, Illinois, entitled him to freedom—after being ...