FACTS

gilderlehrmanafrican-american-historydred-scott-decision

" The first landmark proceeding culminated in the Dred Scott Decision, that disallowed slaves their freedom after previously living in free states. While Dred Scott initially won his liberation in the St. Louis Circuit Court in 1850, he later lost it to his master's widow by a Supreme Court reversal seven years later;"

 "The white peaks of the Sierra Nevada to the west cut so dramatically up into the blue sky that they seemed almost unreal to me, a gorgeous facade."

"Columbia River flowing beneath me. It's the largest river in the Pacific Northwest and the fourth largest in the nation. Native Americans have lived on the river for thousands of years, sustained by its once-bountiful salmon for most of them."