When Did Black People Become Citizens?
Martin Luther King Jr., said, “I am a Man”
Black people have not always been considered full citizens in the United States. Although many Aboriginal people inhabited North America, many black people arrived on the slave ships starting in the early 1600s. Wealthy landowners needed finished products to export. Lacking the workforce or perhaps will necessary, they forced men and women into hard labor, creating wealth for themselves. Slaves were not paid. They were beaten, raped, and tortured. Not allowed to own property, read, or maintain family relationships, black people were treated more like work animals as opposed to people.
“On March 6, 1857, in Dred Scott v. Sandford, the United States Supreme Court ruled that black people were not American citizens and could not sue in courts of law. The Court ruled against Dred Scott, an enslaved black man who tried to sue for his freedom.
For years before this case began, Dred Scott was enslaved by Dr. John Emerson, a military physician who traveled and resided in several states and territories where slavery was illegal–always accompanied by Dred Scott. Dr. Emerson eventually took Mr. Scott back to Missouri, where slavery was legal. When Dr. Emerson died there in 1843, Mr. Scott was still enslaved” (Madeo).
