But this year and last are big years for the Dred Scott case. It was 150 years ago that the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in the Scott case, which began with slaves Dred and Harriet Scott suing for their freedom in the building we now know as the Old Courthouse.
That elegant, dome-topped structure, a working courthouse from 1843 to 1930, is just west of the Gateway Arch, near the riverfront in downtown St. Louis. Together, the courthouse museum and the Arch -- built in the 1960s -- make up the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial.
Whatever you know about Dred Scott, you're bound to learn more at an exhibit at the Old Courthouse. A Legacy of Courage: Dred Scott and the Quest for Freedom fills two galleries on the courthouse's first floor. The space is, in fact, where two Scott trials took place, in 1847 and 1850.
Bob Moore, historian for the courthouse and the Arch, knows that a lot of folks have only a hazy idea of what the Dred Scott case was all about.
''Some people have the misconception that Scott was being prosecuted for something,'' he says. ``Others think the Scotts were set free, and it was the landmark case that broke slavery in America.''
THE REAL STORY
Neither is true. Dred and Harriet Scott also weren't the only African-Americans of that era who sued their owners to be free. In St. Louis alone, some 300 others did the same thing, and about half won their cases. But the Scotts ''just happened to be hitting the court system at a time when things were changing,'' Moore says.
A St. Louis jury decided the Scotts and their two daughters should be set free. But the Missouri Supreme Court reversed that decision, rejecting the doctrine of ''once free, always free.'' The Scotts had sued, after all, because they'd spent several years with their owner in free territories before returning to slave-holding Missouri.
It took 11 years for their case to play out. Finally, in 1857, the U.S. Supreme Court announced a decision, and it wasn't good news for the Scotts. The ruling: Because slaves were considered personal property and the U.S. Constitution guaranteed property rights, the federal government couldn't restrict slavery in U.S. territories.
Furthermore, the court said, people of African descent weren't U.S. citizens and couldn't use the court system to sue. Chief Justice Roger B. Taney opined that they were ``beings of an inferior order . . . so far inferior, that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect . . .''
The divisive ruling was seen as sanctioning slavery. It was undoubtedly one of the events that led to the Civil War. The Scotts' fight for freedom is also seen as a precursor of the civil rights era of the 1950s and `60s.
One point the exhibit makes, Moore says, is that over those 11 years the Scotts could have given up, ``but at each place they decided to press on.''
PERSONAL STORIES
The Old Courthouse exhibit is not just about the legal battle, though. It also tries to shed light on Dred and Harriet Scott themselves -- he was probably in his late 40s when they sued; she was about 30 -- although no personal belongings of the couple's are thought to exist.
Some of what you will see:
• Because Scott once worked as a hotel porter, a trunk and reproduction carpetbag similar to ones travelers would have used then.
• An old black laundry stove, iron and wooden washtub and washboard, similar to ones that laundress Harriet Scott would have used. During the 11 years of litigation, the Scotts were in the custody of the sheriff, who hired them out on a yearly basis.
• An armchair that once belonged to Henry Taylor Blow. The Blow family originally owned Dred Scott.
• Lithographs and engravings of what St. Louis looked like in 1846, the year the Scotts sued.
Other artifacts help the exhibit examine the institution of slavery:
• A 19th century ball and chain, a method of restraint.
• Fragments of pottery found in slave quarters at the Ulysses S. Grant farm in St. Louis. (Yes, the Union general had been a slave owner.)
• A newspaper ad about the sale of ''1 Negro woman, named America, aged about 25 years,'' her 18-month-old baby and twin 5-year-old boys. The auction took place on the steps of the Old Courthouse in 1845.
The original Dred Scott courtroom was replaced in 1855 by two smaller courtrooms with a hallway between them. The Old Courthouse's second floor boasts two restored courtrooms, looking the way they did in the 19th century, but all you can do is peek over ropes at them. About 6,400 students a year take part in mock Dred Scott trials in the courtrooms.
When the Scotts finally gained their freedom in May 1857, not from the courts but from a descendant of Dred Scott's original owner, the proceeding probably took place in one of those second-floor courtrooms.
HEAVY READING
The Scott exhibit, which stays up through March, is heavy on reading. If you are a kid, if you bring kids or if you suffer from a short attention span, you may be more interested in looking at pictures and examining artifacts.
''I think all these documents are too much,'' says Sarah Buehrer of Fenton, Mo., looking at handwritten petitions and depositions. Buehrer and her three sons visited the Old Courthouse recently because the boys, who are home-schooled, were studying Missouri history.
Still, parts of the exhibit piqued the kids' interest. For instance Blake, 10, liked the mini-courtroom. And the boys noticed something odd about a signature on one document: ''Why is there an X there?'' one asked. ''Because he couldn't read or write,'' their mom replied.
While you're at the courthouse, drop by the theater (also on the first floor) to watch the 18-minute film Slavery on Trial: The Dred Scott Decision. It was produced for the courthouse by the History Channel.
The Old Courthouse is listed in the National Park Service's National Underground Railroad Network To Freedom, which recognizes sites with verifiable associations to the Underground Railroad.
Scholars have discovered that St. Louis was something of a hotbed of slaves trying to escape their slave status, Moore says. Some were able to purchase their freedom. Some managed to escape to Illinois and then make their way to Canada.
And some filed lawsuits -- none more famous than Dred and Harriet Scott, ordinary people who wanted only to be free, not imagining they'd help change the course of history.
