On March 6, 1857, the United States Supreme Court ruled on a case that would decide the fate of a slave named Dred Scott. For 11 years, Scott waited to hear if he would be granted his freedom as his case wound its way through the courts of Missouri and New York. Instead, the Court's decision would rock the American landscape, causing a further split in the already fragile relationship between North and South. Distilling a breadth of material, and supplemented with photographs, sidebars, a chronology, timeline, and more, ''Dred Scott v. Sandford'' traces Scott's suit through the U.S. judicial system. History professor Tim McNeese gives readers a clear understanding of the infamous Supreme Court decision in which all blacks, free and slave, were denied U.S. citizenship.