Authors: Jeffry S.Hepple
March 10, 1857
Van Buskirk Point, New Jersey
N
ancy gasped. “And you were fired?”
Anna nodded. “It really shouldn’t make me feel this bad. It isn’t as if I needed the damned job. Do you think I was right in what I said?”
“
I don’t know, Anna. I’ve never completely understood Dred Scott.”
“
It’s not that complicated, Nancy.”
“
If you want my opinion about what you said to the President, take me through it slowly,” Nancy growled. “I don’t need to be ridiculed.”
“
All right, all right. Don’t get all excited.” Anna sighed. “Dred Scott was born a slave. Sometime around 1830, he was sold to an Army Major named John Emerson. Major Emerson moved around a lot and he took Dred Scott with him to his various duty assignments. While he was stationed at Fort Snelling in the Wisconsin Territory, Major Emerson gave Scott permission to marry another slave that he owned. I think her name was Henrietta.” She shook her head. “No, that’s wrong. Harriet. Yes, I think that’s it, Harriet.”
“
It doesn’t matter,” Nancy said.
“
I guess not. So, anyway, when Major Emerson was assigned to Jefferson Barracks near St. Louis, he left Scott and Harriet at Fort Snelling. A short time later, the Army reassigned Major Emerson to Fort Jessup, Louisiana where Emerson married Eliza Irene Sanford.”
“
She’s the Sanford in the case?”
“
Her brother. I’ll get to that.”
“
Okay.”
“
Soon after the wedding, Major Emerson sent for Dred Scott and his wife. On the way to join him, somewhere on the Mississippi River between the Iowa Territory and Illinois, Harriet, or whatever her name is, gave birth to a baby girl.”
“
The child was born on the steamer?”
“
Of course. How else could she have been on the river?”
“
Sorry. Go on.”
“
To make a long story short, Major Emerson died in 1843 and his wife inherited his property, including Dred Scott, Harriet and their child. Scott tried to buy their freedom from her, but she refused. In 1846, Scott sued Mrs. Emerson claiming that his presence and residence in a free territory required his emancipation. He lost based upon a very questionable technicality.”
“
What kind of technicality?”
“
He didn’t produce a witness to prove that he was Mrs. Emerson’s slave.”
“
That’s not questionable; that’s ludicrous.”
“
Do you want to hear this?”
“
Yes. Go on.”
“
In 1850, Scott was granted a new trial and the jury declared him, his wife and, by now, two children free. At this time, Mrs. Emerson was living in Massachusetts, so she transferred advocacy to her brother, John F. A. Sanford, and Mr. Sanford promptly appealed to the Missouri Supreme Court. The Supreme Court overturned the lower court’s decision and Dred Scott, and his family, were all slaves again.”
“
What a travesty.”
Anna nodded. “So, in 1853, Scott sued John F.A. Sanford in federal court. At the trial, the judge directed the jury to rely on Missouri law. Since the Missouri Supreme Court had already held that Scott was a slave, the federal jury had no choice but to find in favor of Sanford.”
“
So, Scott then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court,” Nancy said.
Anna nodded. “And thanks, in a large portion to our new President, Dred Scott, his wife and his daughters are still slaves.”
“
Those poor people.”
“
It’s not only them that’s been harmed by the Court’s ruling. Chief Justice Taney’s written decision states that slaves and their descendants aren’t protected by the Constitution and can never be U.S. citizens.”
“
What?”
“
That’s not all. The court also holds that the U.S. Congress has no authority to prohibit slavery in Federal Territories and that, because slaves aren’t citizens, they have no right to sue in court.”
“
How does that affect people like Abe?”
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Good question. By the strictest interpretation I suppose it means he’s not a citizen.”
“
Dear Lord.”
~
From his favorite chair in his parlor, Abraham Van Buskirk watched his nephew Samuel pace the floor. Abe’s sister Ginger was on the couch, knitting and trying to ignore her son’s rant.
“
Calm down, Samuel,” Abe advised. “You’re going to give yourself apoplexy.”
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Don’t you understand what’s happened, Uncle Abraham?” Samuel raged. “The Supreme Court of the United States decided that we’re not American citizens because Granny Sally was a slave.”
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That’s yet to be determined,” Abe replied in a soothing tone.
“
The Chief Justice says that we are so far inferior that we have no rights that white men are bound to respect. That’s pretty clear.” Samuel stopped pacing. “I think we should sell this place and buy one-way tickets to someplace in Europe.”
The clicking of Ginger’s knitting needles stopped. “Sell this place? Have you lost your mind?”
“
No,” Samuel said. “On the contrary. I’ve finally come to my senses. This isn’t our country, Momma; it’s theirs.” He pointed out the back windows toward the Van Buskirk Home Place.
“
Your mother and I are too old to start a new life in a foreign country,” Abe said. “But if you really want to go to Europe, I’ll give you the money, Samuel.”
May
3, 1857
Paris, France
S
amuel rang the bell and waited until the door was opened by a woman he had never seen before. “Excuse me,” he said in English. “I hope this is the right address. I’m looking for Nannette Van Buskirk.”
The woman gave him a blank stare.
“
Nannette Balletti?”
There was a hint of recognition in the woman’s eyes.
“
She is my aunt,” he said. He looked at his notepad. “Ma tante?”
The woman looked dubious but stepped back and gestured him in, then pointed down the hall.
Uncertainly, Samuel followed the hallway to the end where he found a tiny old woman propped up on pillows in an enormous bed. For a moment, he thought that there was a mistake, but then he recognized the hawk-like, green eyes glittering in the ravaged old face. “It’s Samuel Van Buskirk, Aunt Nan. Do you remember me? Ginger’s son? Abraham’s nephew?”
“
Of course I remember you. Come closer and give me a kiss.” She held her skeletal arms out. “Don’t worry, I won’t break. I just look like a big wind might blow me away.” Her English was perfect but the French accent was stronger than Samuel remembered.
He hurried forward and planted a kiss on her forehead and allowed her to give him a weak squeeze. “Are you ill?”
“
I broke my hip,” she said. “It should be nothing, but at my age it’s going to kill me.” She patted the bed. “Sit and tell me what brings you to France.”
Samuel sat down. “I felt as if America was no longer my home so I came to the Old World looking for a new home.”
“
Dred Scott,” she said with confidence.
He nodded. “It really began five years ago when I was shot by slave catchers who were kidnapping free blacks and selling them in the South. The Dred Scott decision was just the last straw.”
“
Thomas Jefferson should have stuck to his guns.”
“
What?”
“
He wanted slavery abolished with the Declaration of Independence but caved in to southern pressure. It made a mockery of ‘all men are created equal’ and left an open wound that’s been putrefying ever since. John Adams fought like a tiger, but Jefferson was too affable. Good looking, though. I always had a weakness for tall men with red hair.”
Samuel chuckled. “It’s hard for me to imagine that you were there when the United States was being born.”
“
It seems like only yesterday,” she said with a smile. “So tell me about the family.”
“
Where should I begin?”
“
I got a letter from Marina a few weeks ago, but she’s so far out of touch that whatever she says is always old news. Your uncle’s last letter was about two months ago. What’s new since then?”
“
My uncle writes to you?”
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Didn’t he give you my address?”
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Yes, but he never mentioned writing to you.”
“
He had a good reason to keep quiet. Maybe he’ll tell you about it some day after I’m dead.”
Samuel decided not to reveal what he knew about Nanette’s possible involvement in the death of Banastre Tarleton. “I suppose you know that Quincy, Paul and Johnny are all in the army.”
“
I knew that Johnny graduated from West Point but hadn’t heard where he was to be stationed.”
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He’s in Virginia with Pea. Quincy’s stationed in South Carolina but they sent him to Arizona to train artillerymen. I’m not sure how long that will be.”
“
How far from Marina is he?”
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Very far. The West is vast.”
She nodded. “I’ve been as far as El Paso but I don’t know what’s in the Arizona Territory and what’s in the New Mexico Territory now.”
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I forgot that you’d been there. I’d need a map to show you, and then I wouldn’t be absolutely sure. They keep moving the territorial boundaries.”
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It doesn’t matter.” She squeezed her eyes shut and grimaced.
“
Are you all right, Aunt Nan?”
She nodded. “Just a pain. They come and go.” She took a ragged breath. “It’s fortuitous that you’ve come now, Sam. In a few days my mind will be gone and by next week, with a little luck, I’ll be dead.”
“
No. Don’t say that. You look fine to me.”
“
Then it’s another case of looks being deceiving because the doctors say that I’m being poisoned by my own bone marrow.”
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I hope they’re wrong.”
“
I don’t. I’ll be a hundred my next birthday and that’s too old. But you’ve distracted me. I want you to go to town right now and fetch my lawyer. I’m going to leave my estate to you.”
“
No. That’s not right.”
“
It’s perfectly right. The others have Thomas and John’s estates.”