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Full-Text Articles in Legal History
Strader V. Graham: Kentucky's Contribution To National Slavery Litigation And The Dred Scott Decision, Robert G. Schwemm
Strader V. Graham: Kentucky's Contribution To National Slavery Litigation And The Dred Scott Decision, Robert G. Schwemm
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
In 1841, three Kentucky slaves in Louisville boarded a steamboat bound for Cincinnati. Within days, they had made their way to Detroit and then to permanent freedom in Canada. Their owner, a prominent central Kentucky businessman, soon tracked them down and tried to lure them back to bondage in the United States. When these efforts failed, he sued the steamboat owners for the value of the lost slaves in a Kentucky court. After ten years of litigation, this case reached the U.S. Supreme Court. The Court’s decision in favor of the Kentucky slaveholder would prove to be an important precedent …