Prigg v. Pennsylvania

Questions for Further Study

• 1. Compare the portion of this opinion written by Justice Joseph Story with his opinion just a year earlier in United States, Appellants, v. the Libellants and Claimants of the Schooner Amistad. What inferences can you draw about Story’s attitude toward slavery from the two cases?
• 2. Similarly, read the portion of this opinion written by Justice Roger Taney with his opinion in the landmark Dred Scott v. Sandford. What consistencies do you see in the two opinions? Are there any significant differences?
• 3. Read this document in connection with the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 and the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. What impact might Story’s decision have had, directly or indirectly, on the later law?
• 4. It is often quipped that if one party to a legal dispute is entirely happy with the outcome, the court has probably not done its job properly. To what extent were both sides—North and South, supporters and opponents of slavery—unhappy with the decision in this case?
• 5. In what way way, if any, did the Court’s decision in Prigg v. Pennsylvania contribute to the divisions that led to the U.S. Civil War?