On April 6, 1846, attorney Francis B. Murdoch had initiated Harriet v. Irene Emerson in the Circuit Court of St. Louis County, making the Scotts the first and only married couple to file separate freedom suits in tandem.

Born into slavery in Virginia, Harriet Robinson lived briefly in the free state of Pennsylvania before being taken to the Northwest Territory by Indian agent and slaveholder Lawrence Taliaferro.

In 1840, the Scott family moved to St. Louis in the slave state of Missouri with Irene Emerson, who eventually hired them out to her brother-in-law, Captain Henry Bainbridge, at Jefferson Barracks.

On March 6, 1857, the United States Supreme Court led by Chief Justice Roger Taney ruled that the Scotts were not American citizens due to their race, and therefore had no legal rights.

Although they failed to win their freedom through the courts, the Scotts were finally emancipated on May 26, 1857, after nationwide media coverage of their high-profile loss caused public embarrassment to Massachusetts Congressman Calvin C. Chaffee, an abolitionist who had married Eliza Irene Sanford Emerson.

Dred Scott died in 1858, but Harriet survived the Civil War and lived out her days in the company of their two daughters, as well as their grandchildren who had been born into freedom.

There was a Robinson family living near the home where Lawrence Taliaferro had grown up in King George County, Virginia, but there is no known record connecting them to Harriet.

[13][14] At Fort Snelling, United States Army officers received a stipend to pay for servants, but often used enslaved labor instead, keeping the extra money for themselves.

"[3] At the time, the Dakota and Ojibwe population vastly outnumbered the white settlers in Minnesota country, and there was frequent intermarriage, making race relations there more "fluid" than in other parts of the United States.

[3][6]In Mrs. Dred Scott: A Life on Slavery's Frontier (2009), Lea VanderVelde suggests that Harriet Robinson served dinner to several notable visitors while at the St. Peter's Agency house.

"[3] He was a personal servant to John Emerson, a military surgeon who had acquired him as a slave in St. Louis, Missouri before taking up his first official post at Fort Armstrong in the supposedly free state of Illinois.

[18] As Indian agent, Taliaferro was a strong believer in Western-style marriages and their "civilizing" effect on families on the "frontier," whether they were Native Americans, fur traders, soldiers, or other settlers.

[18] On that date, she was hired out by Dr. Emerson to Lieutenant James L. Thompson, 5th Infantry, and his wife Catherine, who later testified in the Scotts' trial as a witness to their residence at Fort Snelling.

He sent numerous requests to the Surgeon General for another reassignment, preferably closer to Illinois, where he hoped to secure his land claims near Fort Armstrong.

[3] And unlike freedman Jim Thompson who found work building new houses for Coldwater refugees, the Scotts lacked skills in hunting, fishing and the Dakota language, which were essential to surviving in the harsh Minnesota climate.

[3] With a baby daughter who had lost her father and a new house under construction in Iowa which she no longer needed, the Scott family's future was probably far from Irene Emerson's mind immediately after the death of her husband.

[3] On April 27, 1844, Dred Scott left with Captain Henry Bainbridge and the entire Third Infantry Regiment on a steamship headed for Louisiana, where they joined the "Army of Observation" led by General Zachary Taylor.

[5] Instead, her refusal probably hinged on the fact that Harriet, Eliza and Lizzie Scott were worth much more as "human property" – both in terms of wages from "hiring out," as well as their potential selling price in the slave market.

[5] Legal historian Lea VanderVelde argues that Murdoch had a nuanced understanding of the differences between Harriet and Dred's claims to freedom, which their subsequent lawyers would lack.

[17] Upon cross examination, witness Samuel Russell admitted that he himself had not arranged to hire Harriet and Dred from Irene Emerson; instead, it had all been handled by his wife, Adeline, and he had simply paid for their services.

[17] On March 17, 1848, in response to a motion filed by Irene Emerson's lawyer, Judge Hamilton ordered the sheriff of St. Louis County to take custody of Harriet and Dred, and hire them out for the duration of the lawsuit.

[3]: 261  Historian VanderVelde suggests that during the cholera epidemic, Dred and Harriet also worked for two St. Louis doctors – Dr. S. F. Watts, followed by Dr. R. M Jennings – because both were summoned as witnesses when the court docket was finally called in 1850.

[24] Field was a personal friend of Judge Hamilton and Justice Gamble, and had been approached by lawyer C. Edmund LeBeaume, who had hired Harriet and Dred from the sheriff and supported them since 1851.

[24] In April 1854, John F. A. Sanford and his lawyer Hugh A. Garland filed a plea in abatement denying the jurisdiction of the court, arguing that Dred Scott did not have the right to citizenship in Missouri.

[22] Field submitted an "Agreed Statement of Facts" outlining the history of Dred's travels with Dr. John Emerson, which contained factual inaccuracies and later confused many historians, but served the immediate purpose.

[18] On February 3, President-elect James Buchanan wrote to Justice John Catron to ask if there was any way that the Supreme Court could announce its decision before his inauguration in March.

[3] Although Harriet initially asked them to leave Dred and her family in peace, the journalists produced a letter of introduction from the Scotts' lawyer, whose signature they recognized.

[37] Harriet Scott lived for nearly 20 more years in freedom in St. Louis, witnessing the Civil War and the end of slavery in the United States of America.

In recent years, genealogist Ruth Ann Hager has explained that "Eliza Scott Madison and her husband died at a young age, leaving their two teenage sons to be raised by her sister Lizzie.

[26] Founded in 1874, Greenwood Cemetery was the first commercial burial ground for African Americans in St. Louis County, Missouri, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.