The correct answer to this open question is the following.
Roger B. Taney increased regional tensions in the United States during the 1850s because he was the judge that gave the decisive vote in the Supreme Court case Dred Scoot v. Sandford.
This happened on March 6, 1857. The Supreme Court decided that Dred Scott was not considered a person, but property. So he could not ask the Court for his liberty. Justices said that African Americans were not citizens under the Constitution of 1787. Justice Taney insisted that Scott was property and belonged to his owner. This decision enraged African Americans and abolitionists of the Northern states.
