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Question

Difficulty: HardIdeological and Legal Debates over Slavery

"It has been often asserted that the Constitution was made exclusively by and for the white race. It has already been shown that in five of the thirteen original States, free colored persons then possessed the elective franchise, and were among those by whom the Constitution was ordained and established. If so, it is not true, in point of fact, that the Constitution was made exclusively by the white race. And that it was made exclusively for the white race is an assumption not warranted by anything in the Constitution, or in the history of the country."

— Justice Benjamin R. Curtis, dissenting opinion, Dred Scott v. Sandford, 1857

Which of the following assertions from the majority opinion in the Dred Scott case was Curtis directly contesting in the excerpt?

  1. African Americans, whether enslaved or free, were not citizens of the United States and could not sue in federal court.Answer
  2. B
    The conflict over slavery in the West was fundamentally an economic dispute over federal tariffs rather than the expansion of labor systems.
  3. C
    The doctrine of popular sovereignty gave territorial legislatures the ultimate authority to exclude slavery prior to statehood.
  4. D
    Hereditary chattel slavery and colonial indentured servitude were legally identical labor systems under the Constitution.

Answer

African Americans, whether enslaved or free, were not citizens of the United States and could not sue in federal court.
The correct option is correct because in the majority opinion of Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857), Chief Justice Roger Taney argued that African Americans could not be citizens of the United States because they were not considered citizens at the time the Constitution was written. Justice Curtis directly challenges this historical assertion by pointing out that free Black Americans actually held the right to vote in five of the original states and participated in the ratification of the Constitution, thereby proving they were part of the political community that established the nation.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the stimulus context and the author's argument.
Justice Benjamin Curtis is arguing against the claim that the US Constitution was made 'exclusively by and for the white race' by citing the historical fact that free Black men voted in five of the original thirteen states during ratification.
Understanding the core claim of the dissenter helps identify the specific majority argument being refuted.
2
Recall the major holdings of the Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) decision.
Chief Justice Roger Taney's majority opinion ruled that: (1) Black people were not citizens and could not sue in federal court; (2) Slaves were property protected by the Fifth Amendment; (3) Congress had no authority to ban slavery in the territories.
This establishes the historical context of the majority opinion's arguments.
3
Connect the excerpt's specific focus to the corresponding majority ruling.
Curtis's emphasis on free Black voters participating in the ordination of the Constitution directly targets Taney's premise that Black Americans were excluded from citizenship at the founding.
This isolates the correct option by matching the constitutional argument about citizenship.

Key Concept

Ideological and Legal Debates over Slavery
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Ideological and Legal Debates over Slavery

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