Harriet Robinson Scott was born into slavery in Virginia. In the early 1830s, she traveled with her master, Major Lawrence Taliaferro, to Fort Snelling, an outpost on the upper Mississippi in Minnesota. In this free area, she met Dred Scott, and they married in 1838. In 1842 she and Dred were sent to St. Louis where they were rented out for service by their owner, Irene Emerson. Harriet and Dred Scott bravely went to court in 1846 to petition for their freedom on the grounds that they had both lived in free areas. Their case dragged on for eleven years and, though unsuccessful, was one of the most important cases ever tried in the United States. After the 1857 decision against their case, the Scotts were freed by Taylor Blow of St. Louis. Harriet Scott lived and worked as a free laundress in St. Louis until her death.

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