Fodor's Expert Review Roger Brooke Taney House

Taney began his law career in Frederick, but is best known as the Chief Supreme Court Justice who wrote the controversial 1857 Dred Scott decision. Taney's opinion, which said that slaves were not citizens and therefore had no Constitutional rights, helped move the country toward Civil War. The brick Federal-style home turned museum offers insight into Taney's life (his wife was the sister of his law partner, Francis Scott Key), middle-class life in the late 1800s, and the slaves he owned. A bust of Taney stands at Frederick's City Hall Plaza, a few feet from a plaque explaining the Dred Scott ruling.