What did the Dred Scott decision determine about citizenship?

• A. Slaves could vote
• B. All people born in the U.S. were citizens
• C. Free and enslaved African Americans were not citizens and could not sue in federal court
• D. Slavery was illegal in border states

Answer: (C)

This question centers on how the Dred Scott decision defined who could be a citizen. The ruling stated that African Americans, whether enslaved or free, could not be citizens of the United States, so they did not have the rights of citizenship or the ability to sue in federal courts. In other words, the Constitution did not grant Black people, by birth or status, the protections of citizenship at that time. This made citizenship effectively limited to white people and denied federal legal standing to many Black Americans. The other ideas about voting rights for slaves, all people born in the U.S. being citizens, or slavery’s legality in border states do not reflect what the decision ruled about citizenship.