Dred Scott, a slave from Missouri, had been taken by his owner, an army doctor, to the free state of Illinois in 1834. After two years he was taken into the Wisconsin Territory in 1837 where slavery was forbidden under the Missouri Compromise. Scott and his owner returned to Missouri in 1838 where they stayed for eight years. With the death of his owner, Scott was given to Doctor Emerson's wife and her brother John Sanford. Dred Scott with the urging and assistance of local lawyers in Missouri sued for his freedom. Scott argued that since he had lived in a free state and a free territory, he was free. He won in the lower state courts of Missouri, but lost in the highest state court. Because Mrs. Emerson had remarried and moved to New York, the lawyers for Scott appealed to the federal courts, since the case involved the citizens of two states. In 1857 the Supreme Court of the United States agreed to hear the case. There were two main legal questions in this case: 1. Was Dred Scott a citizen of the United States and therefore entitled to bring suit in the federal courts? 2. Was he free as a result of having lived in a territory where slavery was outlawed by the Missouri Compromise? Did living in a free state and free territory make him free?