Dred Scott v. Sandford (March 6, 1857)

We Canadians do not really have a true sense of American history. There, I’ve said it aloud. I was reading a chapter, today, in Phineas Quimby’s book entitled “Government”. It was written in April 1851, soon after Abraham Lincoln was elected President. Even at that stage of the proceedings, Quimby recognized that the United States of America had gone ‘wrong’, in his opinion, and that soon there might be a civil war between the North and the South, over slavery. He referenced this Supreme Court decision as a mistake.

For ease of handling, I raised this chart with a midday timing to see what might appear. Saturn conjunct the Ascendant in Cancer seems appropriate. Moon square Venus/Pluto, and Mercury square Uranus show the cosmic proportions of this decision. Taurus figures strongly in both these squares.

The question is simply this: Can a negro, whose ancestors were imported into this country, and sold as slaves, become a member of the political community formed and brought into existence by the Constitution of the United States, and as such become entitled to all of the rights, and privileges, and immunities, guarantied [sic] by that instrument to the citizen?

Dred Scott, 60 U.S. at 403

But the effect on the slave, Dred Scott, at the heart of this case may have proven too much to bear. He died less than a year-and-a-half later. His death chart is randomized (but the effect is startling).

The Decision’s Part of Fortune is conjunct Scott’s ‘fatal’ Ascendant @ 18° Scorpio, while Scott’s ‘fatal’ Part of Fortune is conjunct the Decision’s Sun @ 16° Pisces. Fortunately, after the civil war, the 13th and 14th Amendments to the American Constitution voided this Supreme Court decision.

And yet, the beat goes on…