What did Scott v. Sandford decide about rights of escaped slaves?

• A. A slave who escaped had no rights as a citizen
• B. Congress could ban slavery in territories
• C. Freed slaves could be citizens in some states
• D. Abraham Lincoln emancipated the slaves

Answer: (A)

The main idea here is that Scott v. Sandford held that African Americans could not be citizens of the United States, and therefore did not have rights under the Constitution. Because escaped slaves were considered part of this group, they were not entitled to constitutional protections as citizens. The ruling explicitly denied citizenship-based rights to Black people, which meant an escaped slave had no rights as a citizen to rely on in federal law. This decision also touched on federal power over slavery in territories, but the key point for the question is the denial of citizenship rights. The ruling was later superseded by the Civil War and the Fourteenth Amendment, which extended citizenship and equal protection to all persons born or naturalized in the United States.