when they sued for their freedom throughout the 1840's and 1850's. the case went all the way to the supreme court. because of the dred scott decision in 1857, it stated that dred and harriet did not have the right to sue in court because as african-americans they were not citizens of the united states and the missouri compromise, which limited where slavery could exist in the country, was unconstitutional because it prohibited people in the rights to property. and this time, slaves were considered property and not people. the dred scott decision furthered the divide between the north and south in the years prior to the civil war. one of the direct causes leading up to the rupture in the 1860's had its origin at fort snelling with dred scott. evidence about daily lives of the enslaved people at fort snelling was very scarce, but we

believe they were primarily were involved in domestic slavery, doing cooking, cleaning, domestic chores for their owners. dred and harriet scott belonged to a dr. emerson. he was a surgeon. they would have been living in his kitchen, the workspace. in domestic slavery, typically enslaved people working under that type of condition would have been living inside the places that they worked. along the officers quarters, down in the basement kitchen, that is where we believe a lot of the majority of the enslaved people would have been working and living. it is arguable that this is the place that had the first major african-american community in what would become minnesota by virtue of the enslaved population that was living here. if you look at it simply as a

military fort and you do not have the context on it, you miss out on the important role that it played not just in minnesota, but a national history. you miss the narrative. you miss the whole point of this being here. if you don't have that large wrapping around it, you will miss out on all the other stories that shape the history. they may not have realized it at the time, but what those people did shaped the world that their descendents would live in. the world we live in now was shaped by what people were doing then. if we think of it that way, it is a complex, diverse story. >> throughout the weekend, american history tv is featuring st. paul, minnesota.

the city sits on the mississippi river. -- reference of prefer me to the last stop on the line. rapids up the river made it the last stop on the line. james hill was only james and when he would born raised. he added the middle name because he thought important people had a middle name. i find that amusing. why would he do that? what would make them want to do that? i think it is funny. >> we're at the james j hill house in minnesota. took three years to build it. a36,000 square feet.

where you are standing right now is the most spec tech interview in the house. that is saying something because this entire building is pretty gorgeous and pretty impressive. but right here is where he wanted the public to be just blown away. it is all concentrated right here. most of this would work was done by a team of 13 incredibly talented men. aey were led by a man who was germany immigrant who came here with control of their men to do this carving. the detail is absolutely amazing. i do not know that you could find artists to do this kind of work nowadays. allook 30,000 hours to do of the carving you see throughout the building. this building uses a lot of rugged stone. it has take, squat pillars, and blunt, forceful,

masculine appearance. it is imposing and impressive. for somethingking pretty, he was looking for something that said he was a serious man with a great deal of money and a great deal of power. appearance of this building is very powerful. it is a very commanding presence. >> james j hill was board outside of rockwood ontario canada. he was a farm kid, and that 14 his father died. he had to quit school, get a job, and support his family. he had to do that rest of his life. he started working his way west after a couple of years on the east coast. he sent they letter to his grandmother saying that i have an opportunity to look at st. paul. up to st.rboat came paul, got a job on the waterfront.

at that time this was a very primitive community. a clerk job working as on the waterfront, inventorying goods coming on and off the steamship. he stayedw years there on the waterfront, but soon met his wife. she was a waitress at the hotel where he took his meals. they kind of connected. when she was 17 he proposed to her and she accepted. a borrowed some money from couple of friends, shipped her off to milwaukee, wisconsin for three years to go to finishing schools. she needed to be ready for his lifestyle some day. three years later, she got back, they got married, and had children and live half only ever after -- happily ever after.

how did he afford to build a house like this? some friendswith who became lifelong partners. he got into shipping, he got into warehousing, in fact he built his own warehouse on the nt, closer to the water, so there was no cost of living the goods off the ships into the warehouse. he was always ahead of the game. he also got into mining. what really started the ball rolling was he and three friends bought a railroad, it was his of defunct, and he and three partners turned it around and made it into a very profitable railroad. tot gave him the impetus build the great northern. that whole thing is kind of

interesting because he had this fantasy as a young man of going to the orient. he kept thinking about going west, going west. but this railroad gave him the opportunity to do that. in 1880, he started can ring that great northern railroad which ran from here, and ended up eventually in seattle, washington. and it took 13 years to build that. st. paul was pretty much a frontier little town. dealt,at railroad was and it was not just the railroad, the mailing industry in indianapolis he had his hand in that -- minneapolis, he had his hand in that. the banking industry as well. it opened up the whole country coast shipping here and

there. it would have connections to the east coast via train. st. paul, they had a three-day celebration in his honor when that railroad was finished as they knew the impact it was going to have on this part of the world. >> we're in what was probably his favorite room in the whole house. his art gallery. it is a room that has a modern and event and it, but it over my shoulder we have a painting that is original to the house. this is indeed typical of the type of art that he liked to collect. collected mostly paintings by a french artist, and these walls were completely covered by

paintings when they lived here. this historic photo gives you some idea of how it looked in the old days. over here is a door, and entrance from the outside. in 1891, moved in here privy to museums. and if you work an art museum you could go down to his office building and get a little card admission,ion -- which would entitle you to come in and view the art collection. that was rather generous of mr. hill. he other thing he did was was one of the people that contributed money to get the minneapolis institute of arts up and running. to get it built and to give full of ours. we did not just collect for some pressure -- for some pleasure.

>> it is interesting that hill, of all of the rich man in the country at that time, he was the one that was least known for a number of reasons. he never put his name on with,ng that he had to do none of his enterprises, other with and the original warehouse but he bought and put on the water front. the shipping industry, the votes boats he owned, he never did. the people on the east coast, the rockefellers, they were famous because they have their name on everything. he hung out with those guys. he had connections with powerful men. were they close friends? i do not think so. businesswere

acquaintances. >> we are in the formal dining room of the house, and it is the fanciest. the ceiling is covered with gold leaf, the wall covering his hand tooled in boston other -- embossed leather. has eight leaves in it, but has a total of 17 leaves that they could extend the full length of the room. ofy entertained all kinds roman people, but the most prominent was president william mckinley dined here one year before he was assassinated. there are a couple of hidden doors in the house. this is the first one. the goal doorknob is a giveaway. it used to be the there was no doorknob. if you see this little detail on the board work and there was a button in there. they would press the button and

it would make the door spring open. it is a safe. there are two sais in the house but this one is called the silver ball and this is where y kept the $30,000 of tiffany silverwear. this is a brick lined closet, it is fireproof. when we do the tumors of the house -- tours of the house, have the opportunity to talk about his family. it is a fascinating family. we tried to give them a little bit of feedback on how did the family work? what were his kids like? i think the most fascinating thing is the whole thing, he had three sons. the eldest was the second child

born, and lewis was the third, and walter was the last child and the youngest. and of course he was expected to be the air apparent, and he was .or about 12 to 14 years his dad writes about him, he put in entire job the -- entir charge of the duluth office of the railroad. he talks about what a wonderful job you was doing and so forth. or 14 yearsut 12 after james gorman started working for his father, he left , got went to new york city into texaco oil, made another fortune on his own. so the question is, what happened? >that is really hard to find ou. hints in just little

papers and documents and in some of the children's letters. they kind of indicates some gorman perhapss got frustrated that his dad did not let it go and let him take over. animosityere was between he and his younger brother lewis. we do not know for sure. it is one of those we wish we knew more, but we do not. it is fascinating that all happened. up taking overd all of the businesses and on --g things from then running things from then on. those intriguing family things that you wish they were alive and you could begin and see what happened. >> this organ was a last-minute addition to the house. it was not in the original