As I was walking that Ribbino Highway I saw above me endless Endless Skyway. me Endless sky way

I saw below me

the golden

the golden valley the Golden Valley.

This land was made for you and me. April 6th, 1846, Dred and Harriet Scott walk into the unfinished lobby of the downtown St. Louis

Missouri courthouse and in an act of bravery and self-preservation filed separate

petitions against Irene Emerson for their freedom.

On that day, one of the most important lawsuits in American history,

one that would ultimately hasten the start of the Civil War and divide an already divided country,

began.

It would take 10 years and reach as far as the United States Supreme Court before it ended.

On this episode of America's National Parks,

the Dred Scott case and the Gateway Arch National Park.

Here's Abigail Traibian. You're going to be here. Dread Scott was born to enslaved parents in Southampton County, Virginia, sometime around the turn of the 19th century.

Their owner was a man named Peter Blow. After a failed farming stint in Alabama Peter Blo settled his family and his six slaves in St. Louis in 1830,

where he ran a boarding house.

Within two years, both Peter Blo and his wife were dead.

Just before his death, Peter Blow sold Dread Scott to Dr. John Emerson.

Emerson served as a civilian doctor at Jefferson Barracks before being appointed as an assistant surgeon in the United States Army. He left St. Louis on

November 19th, 1833 to report for duty at Fort Armstrong in Rock Island, Illinois, taking Dred Scott with him.

Of course slavery was prohibited in Illinois both under the

Northwest Ordinance of 1787 and the Illinois State Constitution which had

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