March 6 · This Day in America
Dred Scott sued for his freedom and his family's, and after eleven years the case reaches the Supreme Court. On this day Chief Justice Roger Taney delivers the answer: that Black Americans, enslaved or free, are not and cannot be citizens, and have "no rights which the white man was bound to respect." The Court further strikes down Congress's power to limit slavery in the territories. It is meant to settle the question of slavery forever. Instead it does the opposite — it slams shut every peaceful door, convinces the North that the system means to spread everywhere, and pushes the nation the last few steps toward war. It is widely judged the worst decision the Court has ever made. It would take a civil war and the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to erase it. The day is told plainly, because the 250th is the whole story, including this.
Source: www.archives.gov
Also on this day · 1836
Before dawn, Santa Anna's columns storm the old mission near San Antonio. After thirteen days under siege and roughly ninety minutes of fighting, the garrison of fewer than two hundred — Travis, Bowie, and the legendary Davy Crockett among them — is overrun and killed. Travis had written for help: "Victory or Death." None came in time. But "Remember the Alamo" became the cry that won Texas its independence six weeks later.
Source: www.tshaonline.org
“I shall never surrender or retreat... Victory or Death.”William Barret Travis, from the Alamo, 1836