List of United States Supreme Court Justices who owned slaves information
Bushrod Washington placed a runaway slave ad in the Alexandria Gazette of April 4, 1821, seeking the return of Fielding, reward $10
This is a list of U.S. Supreme Court Justices who owned slaves at any point in their lives. Slavery was legal in parts of the United States from the American Revolutionary War through the adoption of the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution in December, 1865, shortly after the conclusion of the American Civil War.
This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (May 2023)
Justice
Chief or Associate
Approximate number of slaves held
While on federal bench?
Notes
John Marshall
Chief
>150[1]
Yes
Lifelong slave owner[1]
Roger B. Taney
Chief
Many
Yes
Lifelong slave owner; manumitted "most (but not all)" of his slaves as young man; [2] "deeply committed to slavery".[3] Wrote the Dred Scott decision.
Bushrod Washington
Associate
Heir to Mount Vernon and the enslaved people who worked and lived on the property[4]
John Marshall Harlan
Associate
Unknown
Unknown
"The Great Dissenter," he ultimately became one of the court's staunchest defenders of equal rights[5][6]
John Catron
Associate
Unknown
Unknown
Lifelong slave owner; father of an extramarital child by an enslaved woman named Sally[7]
James M. Wayne
Associate
Unknown[8]
John A. Campbell
Associate
Unknown
No; freed his slaves before joining the Court[9]
Quit the court at outbreak of Civil War and was later appointed Confederate Assistant Secretary of War; he "bitterly opposed" Reconstruction and organized multiple lawsuits in opposition[10]
Samuel Freeman Miller
Associate
Unknown
No
Freed his slaves before he left Kentucky for Iowa[11]
^ abFinkelman (2018), p. 4–5.
^Finkelman (2018), p. 7.
^Finkelman (2018), p. 184.
^"Bushrod Washington | History of the Supreme Court". Retrieved 2024-05-12.
^Belpedio, James R. "John Marshall Harlan I". Middle Tennessee State University. Retrieved 2023-05-12.
^Szalai, Jennifer (2021-06-14). "A Supreme Court Justice Who Moved From Defending Slavery to Championing Civil Rights". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-05-12.
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