Winston: A Woman’s Fight for Freedom in Minnesota

By the HENNEPIN HISTORY MUSEUM

On Saturday, October 11, the Hennepin History Museum will celebrate the opening of Winston: A Woman’s Fight for Freedom in Minnesota, an exhibit about the little-known story of Eliza Winston, the first and only enslaved person to successfully fight for their freedom in a Minnesota courtroom. Winston presents the biography of a courageous African American woman and the short time she spent in Minnesota. Her story not only sheds new light on local history, but transcends it, establishing significance within national history.

De facto slavery was widely accepted in antebellum Minnesota. For years, Southern enslavers forced their captives to accompany them to the free state for business and pleasure. This ended in 1860 when Eliza Winston bravely fought for liberation. Her emancipation became local lore and national propaganda, so much so that she was largely excluded from her own narrative, one that reveals a remarkable journey of determination, and sheds light on Minnesota’s complex relationship with slavery.

This namesake exhibit is based on the scholarship of exhibit co-curator Dr. Christopher P. Lehman, author and professor of the Department of Social Sciences at St. Cloud State University, and features artifacts from the museum’s permanent collection as well as newly commissioned artwork depicting Eliza by local artist Christopher Aaron Deanes.… Read the rest “Winston: A Woman’s Fight for Freedom in Minnesota”