PBS features a summary of the landmark Supreme Court case of Dred Scott v. Sanford which ruled that African Americans are not American citizens, and therefore could not sue in federal court. Decision written by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney.

This encyclopedia article is a brief biography of Dred Scott, the slave who sued for his freedom. His case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, where he lost.

An exhaustive, searchable website with original court records on 300 legal petitions for freedom by people of color, originally filed in St. Louis courts between 1814 and 1860.