I Stand corrected to an extent, but I guess my question now becomes, what
was the Supreme Court? DRED SCOTT WAS DECIDED BY THE SUPREME COURT, not
Missouri.
Even though Missouri had been admitted as a "Slave State"
By the time of Dred Scott, 1857 less than 10% of the state was slave. 
DRED SCOTT WAS DECIDED BY THE SUPREME COURT, not Missouri. 
See below:
As many of the early American settlers in western Missouri migrated from the
Upper South, they brought enslaved African Americans for labor, and a desire
to continue their culture and the institution of slavery. They settled
predominantly in 17 counties along the Missouri River, in an area of
flatlands that enabled plantation agriculture and became known as "Little
Dixie". In 1821 the territory was admitted as a slave state in 1821 as part
of the Missouri Compromise with a temporary state capitol in St. Charles. In
1826 the capital was shifted to its permanent location of Jefferson City,
also on the Missouri.

The state was rocked by the 1812 New Madrid earthquake. Casualties were
light due to the sparse population.

Originally the state's western border was a straight line, defined as the
meridian passing through the Kawsmouth,[40] the point where the Kansas River
enters the Missouri River. The river has moved since this designation. This
line is known as the Osage Boundary.[41] In 1835 the Platte Purchase was
added to the northwest corner of the state after purchase of the land from
the native tribes, making the Missouri River the border north of the Kansas
River. This addition increased the land area of what was already the largest
state in the Union at the time (about 66,500 square miles (172,000 km2) to
Virginia's 65,000 square miles, which then included West Virginia).[42]

 
Fur Traders Descending the Missouri by Missouri painter George Caleb
BinghamIn the early 1830s, Mormon migrants from northern states and Canada
began settling near Independence and areas just north of there. Conflicts
over religion and slavery arose between the 'old settlers' (mainly from the
South) and the Mormons (mainly from the North). The Mormon War erupted in
1838. By 1839, with the help of an "Extermination Order" by Governor Lilburn
Boggs, the old settlers forcefully expelled the Mormons from Missouri and
confiscated their lands.

Conflicts over slavery exacerbated border tensions among the states and
territories. From 1838 to 1839, a border dispute with Iowa over the
so-called Honey Lands resulted in both states' calling up militias along the
border.

With increasing migration, from the 1830s to the 1860s Missouri's population
almost doubled with every decade. Most of the newcomers were American-born,
but many Irish and German immigrants arrived in the late 1840s and 1850s. As
they were mostly Catholic, they mostly set up their own religious
institutions in the state, which had been mostly Protestant. Having fled
famine and oppression in Ireland, and revolutionary upheaval in Germany, the
immigrants were not sympathetic to slavery. Many settled in cities, where
they created a regional and then state network of Catholic churches and
schools. Nineteenth-century German immigrants created the wine industry
along the Missouri River and the beer industry in St. Louis.

Most Missouri farmers practiced subsistence farming before the Civil War.
The majority of those who held slaves had fewer than five each. Planters,
defined by historians as those holding twenty slaves or more, were
concentrated in the counties known as "Little Dixie", in the central part of
the state along the Missouri River. The tensions over slavery had chiefly to
do with the future of the state and nation. In 1860 enslaved African
Americans made up less than 10% of the state's population of 1,182,012.[43]
In order to control the flooding of farmland and low-lying villages along
the Mississippi, the state had completed construction of 140 miles (230 km)
of levees along the river by 1860.[44]
Dred Scott Case:
Dred Scott (1795 - September 17, 1858), was an African-American slave in the
United States who unsuccessfully sued for his freedom and that of his wife
and their two daughters in the Dred Scott v. Sandford case of 1857,
popularly known as "the Dred Scott Decision." His case was based on the fact
that although he and his wife Harriet Scott were slaves, he had lived with
his master Dr. John Emerson in states and territories where slavery was
illegal according to both state laws and the Northwest Ordinance of 1787,
including Illinois and Minnesota (which was then part of the Wisconsin
Territory). The United States Supreme Court decided 7-2 against Scott,
finding that neither he nor any other person of African ancestry could claim
citizenship in the United States, and therefore Scott could not bring suit
in federal court under diversity of citizenship rules. Moreover, Scott's
temporary residence outside Missouri did not bring about his emancipation
under the Missouri Compromise, which the court ruled unconstitutional as it
would improperly deprive Scott's owner of his legal property.
While Chief Justice Roger B. Taney had hoped to settle issues related to
slavery and Congressional authority by this decision, it aroused outrage and
deepened sectional tensions. President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation
Proclamation in 1863, and the post-Civil war Thirteenth, Fourteenth and
Fifteenth amendments nullified the decision.

-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Craig Kilby
Sent: Friday, December 14, 2012 11:19 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Dred Scott decision

Mr. Adams,

The Dred Scott decisions was tried and handed down in St. Louis, Missouri. A
"nasty slave holding state." The old court house there is now an
African-American history museum.

Craig Kilby

On Dec 14, 2012, at 9:55 AM, John Philip Adams wrote:

> You need to cite Dred Scott. It was a court in a non slave area that 
> held for Scott's owner, not some nasty slave holding state.
> JPADAMS


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