Ethelred "Dred" Scott was born enslaved in Virginia in 1795. In 1830, his owner, planter Peter Blow, sold him to U.S. Army surgeon Dr. John Emerson, the brother of Blairsville's first physician, Dr. Edward P. Emerson. Dred Scott and his wife Harriet Robinson of Bedford, PA, filed a series of lawsuits seeking their freedom, arguing from 1846 to 1857 that their presence in the free territory of Missouri required their emancipation. The 1857 Dred Scott decision held that Dred and Harriet, as slaves, were not recognized legal U.S. citizens and therefore could not sue for their freedom. On this site, Dr. Edward Emerson operated his druggist business. Edward Emerson was also a physician, mill owner, hotelier, and slave owner. According to the 1830 U.S. Census of Blairsville, Emerson owned a male slave under the age of ten years, but the identity of the young person he enslaved is unknown.