The Supreme Court’s decision on Dred Scott vs Sanford in 1857, was iconic as it changed the ways of the Civil War, in fact this decision marked the beginning of the Civil War. This was a historically huge decision where Chief Justice Roger Taney declared that African-Americans were not a part of the United States and were not citizens, thus they had no federal rights that they could use. (Roger Brooke Taney, Israel Washburn and Horace Gray, The Dred Scott Case Salem, N.H.: Ayer Co. Pub., 1991.)