AM I NOT A MAN?: THE DRED SCOTT STORY

by Mark L. Shurtleff

On November 6, 1860, the people of the United States elected the nominee of the infant Republican Party as their sixteenth president. An obscure lawyer from Illinois, Abraham Lincoln had lost his two prior forays into national politics as a candidate for the U.S. Senate, but in a stunning turnaround that garnered 59% of the electoral votes, Lincoln beat Senator Stephen Douglas and three other candidates, including the incumbent vice president. Many Lincoln scholars and historians believe, as do I, that the single greatest reason for his extraordinary victory was a notorious 1857 decision by the United States Supreme Court in Scott v. Sandford. In a brutal decision that has been called the worst in the history of the court, Chief Justice Roger Taney ruled that a black man was not a man and had no rights a white man was bound to respect. In the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1857, Lincoln made Taney’s abhorrent decision the basis of his “house divided” speech. “A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free.” Douglas and the Democrats supported the Supreme Court decision. In a speech on the case, Lincoln said, “The Republicans inculcate, with whatever of ability they can, that the negro is a man; that his bondage is cruelly wrong, and that the field of his oppression ought not to be enlarged. The Democrats deny his manhood; deny, or dwarf to insignificance, the wrong of his bondage; so far as possible, crush all sympathy for him, and cultivate and excite hatred and disgust against him.” Northern Democrats and Whigs agreed with Lincoln. They flocked to the Republican Party in the next presidential election and chose the man who would become The Great Emancipator and fight a war to free the Negro. Therefore, it can be claimed with authority that, but for the slave Dred Scott, there would have been no President Abraham Lincoln. Who was this illiterate slave Dred Scott, born and raised as Sam Blow in southern Virginia, and as a man barely passed five feet tall and a hundred pounds soaking wet; who had the audacity, courage, and faith to persevere for ten years in state and federal court to gain his freedom? What moved him to endure whippings and vile threats and stand erect before a jury of white slaveholders, defiant in appealing the decisions of lofty appellate judges? The life of Dred Scott is the story of America from the beginning of the 19th century through the Louisiana Purchase, the War of 1812, the Missouri Compromise, The War with Mexico, Bloody Kansas, and culminating in the War Between the States. It is also a moving personal tale of the life of a slave who wanted to be treated as a man, and, when he became a husband and a father, would stop at nothing in his quest for freedom for the girls he loved more than his own life. I have watched with dismay the fracturing of our great Nation along deep political, racial, ethnic, gender and socio-economic lines. Hate is strong. Healing of the divisions seems hopeless. But I believe that we can learn from the past, and the story of Dred Scott at a time when our country was similarly splitting apart is a lesson of hope for us today. This story does not just highlight the courage and determination of Dred, in the face of all obstacles; but notably, it is also a daring story of the grown children of his first master who loved Dred and knew of his humanity and risked losing everything in fighting for his freedom against the most powerful pro-slavery families in America—all the way to the United States Supreme Court ... and beyond. Dred Scott's history is a positive lesson for our time of great political, cultural, and racial division.

374 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 13, 2021

About the author

Mark L. Shurtleff began his legal career by serving four years in the United States Navy Judge Advocate Corps (JAG), then as a lawyer in Southern California. After four years practicing law in the private sector in California, Mark moved back to Utah and worked as a Deputy County Attorney and as Commissioner of Salt Lake County. He later became an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Utah. He was elected Attorney General in November 2000 and was re-elected in 2004 and 2008. He is the only Attorney General in Utah history to serve three terms. Mark currently runs a solo civil and criminal litigation practice in federal, state and local courts and is a partner in an international private equity and business consulting firm.

In his free time, Mark loves to write and research American history; has visited all 50 states; and on one such trip located the 370 year old house in Marshfield, Massachusetts, where his 8th Great Grandfather, Captain William Shurtleff, was killed in1668 when lightening came down the chimney of a neighbor's home. He has also spent considerable time in Latin America and the Middle East. He is the recipient of the Order of the Aztec Eagle from the President and Senate of Mexico. At home he and his wife enjoy working together in their urban garden, raising chickens, and canning vegetables, fruit and jam.

Mark is married to the former Mindy Clegg of Cache Valley, Utah. They have nine children between them, and reside in Salt Lake City, Utah with their two dogs and twelve chickens.

Reviews

[Mark Shurtleff · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved rereading my book. It brought back many beautiful memories from my travels, research, writing and sharing my book. I've decided to record an audible version. I've also realized how relevant the lessons from Dred Scott's history are to today's fractured Nation and will re-double my efforts to share it.

P.S. I think I'm a pretty good writer. :-)