In Dred Scott v. Sanford, what did the Supreme Court rule about African Americans?

• A. African Americans had citizenship rights
• B. Congress could regulate slavery in new territories
• C. African Americans had no rights to citizenship
• D. Slavery was legal in all territories

Answer: (C)

The main idea here is that the Court said African Americans could not be citizens and thus had no rights to citizenship. In Dred Scott v. Sanford, the Supreme Court ruled that Black people, whether enslaved or free, were not American citizens and therefore could not sue in federal courts. This ruling also said Congress couldn’t ban slavery in new territories, but the part most directly about African Americans is the denial of citizenship rights. That decision reinforced the idea that enslaved people and their descendants didn’t have the protections or standing of citizens, a view that was overturned later by the Civil War and the 14th Amendment.