The descendants of Dred Scott and Peter and Elizabeth Taylor Blow will hold a 250th anniversary celebration, honoring the St. Louis connection between the two families whose actions changed the nation.

The ceremony, which is scheduled for 1 p.m. February 15 at the Carondelet Historical Society in St. Louis, will be attended by Lynne and Sherrie Jackson, descendants of Dred Scott, a slave who is one of five people credited with precipitating the Civil War that led to the end of slavery.

John and Ashton Le Bougeios, co-authors of the book "The Blows of Yesteryear: An American Saga," will represent Blow family descendants. The book concerns the largely forgotten women descendants of Elizabeth Taylor and Peter Blow.

Dred Scott was born and grew up on the Blow's plantation in rural Virginia. Scott is believed to have been born in 1805.

The Blow family later sold Scott to Dr. John Emerson, a U.S. Army Surgeon, who took Scott to what is now Minnesota in the Wisconsin territory. Dr. Emerson died and his widow inherited Scott. She later moved to Massachusetts.

Henry Taylor Blow, the son of Peter and Elizabeth Taylor Blow, filed a lawsuit in 1846 in Missouri on behalf of Scott.
Henry Blow argued that Scott was a free man because he lived in Minnesota, a free territory. A state court ruled against Scott. The case was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which was led by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney. Taney ruled that black men had no rights that a white man had to respect. He ruled that Scott was property.

Taney also ruled that Congress had no right to outlaw slavery in the U.S. territories, overturning the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which regulated the spread of slavery.
Taney hoped his decision would end any further discussion of slavery, but it outraged abolitionists. Abraham Lincoln, the Republican candidate for president in 1860, campaigned against the further expansion of slavery.

Others credited with credited with starting the Civil War are William L. Garrison, John Brown, Harriet Beecher Stowe and Abraham Lincoln.

Last April, a highway marker was dedicated to Dred Scott, honoring him.

The 250th anniversary event also will feature a dramatization by the Dred Scott Theatre Troupe. There also will be a book signing of "The Blows of Yesteryear: An American Saga."