In 1857, Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney, considered by historians to be an outstanding jurist along with a competent judicial administrator, with the stroke of his pen attempted to settle once and for all the status of slavery in this country. This subject along with its expansion west was debated for many decades prior to Taney‘s ruling. In his perceived wisdom he chose to ignore the fundamental principle in which our country was founded as outlined clearly in the Declaration of Indepen dence. When Thomas Jefferson penned this declaration it heralded that ―We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.‖ This sentence has been called one of the best-known and most potent sentences ever written. On paper it appeared to exclude none of the inhabitants of the original thirteen colonies. Dred Scott‘s quest for freedom was part of a process that helped the United States fulfill these words, promised and echoed ever since the beginning of the American Revolution. You are about to read the product of a thorough research of the known records and transactions relating to Dred Scott‘s early years in Virginia as the slave of Peter Blow of Southampton County. In the early 19th Century this man was considered property, hardly worthy of mention in ii the documents of the time. Since his early life in Southampton, his stature in American Society has risen in prominence, representing a portion of America that speaks volumes as to how as a nation we have evolved in an attempt to fulfill the founding fathers‘ unrealized statements. We recognize and honor Dred and his Virginia parents by identifying their existence on Peter Blow‘s Plantation and as the slaves of the Taylor family. This is an attempt to tell the story of their early life and preserve their legacy for future generations to remember. In testament to his life, Dred Scott‘s stature has risen from these humble beginnings, representing a fulfillment of that portion of the creed of the United States that was founded upon the principles of God, Equality for all, and individual liberty. Dred Scott repeatedly lost court decisions in his quest for freedom for his family; however, he was successful in obtaining an honored place for himself in the history of our great nation while Chief Justice Taney‘s legacy drifts into obscurity.