Eliza Winston exhibit illuminates Minnesota’s complicated history with slavery 

When researching the pivotal events of 1860, one is likely to find pages devoted to Abraham Lincoln’s election and the secession of southern states from the Union. What’s less visible in that same year’s history is how Minnesota’s quiet complicity in slavery was exposed by one woman’s fight for freedom.

A new exhibit at the Hennepin History Museum, “Winston: A Woman’s Fight for Freedom in Minnesota,” brings to life the story of Eliza Winston, a woman born into slavery in Tennessee in 1817 and sold at the age of five. Her bondage was perpetuated by President Andrew Jackson, who purchased Eliza for his niece, an early example of how enslavement persisted even among the nation’s elite.

The exhibit unfolds as a written story that wraps around the museum’s second-floor gallery. Visitors follow Eliza’s journey north with the family who enslaved her, drawn by their promise, never kept, that she would gain her freedom in Minnesota.

Once in what was then the village of St. Anthony, Winston’s determination and the support of free African Americans and white abolitionists led to her emancipation in a Minnesota courtroom. She became the first, and only, enslaved person to legally secure her freedom in the state.

The exhibit’s scholarship is rooted in “It Took Courage: Eliza Winston’s Quest for Freedom,” written by Dr. Christopher P. Lehman, professor of social sciences at St. Cloud State University. Lehman, who served as co-curator, said he was honored to see his research take visual form.

“I have great respect for Eliza Winston, her life, her tenacity, her courage,” Lehman said. “I wanted people to be as inspired by her story as I was. When the museum asked me to co-curate and offered support every step of the way, I was more than happy to help bring her legacy to life.”

Alyssa Thiede, resident curator at the Hennepin History Museum and a specialist in collaborative public history, co-curated the exhibit with Lehman. She emphasized how Eliza’s story has long been overshadowed by narratives centering white abolitionists.

“There was a massive gap in public knowledge until Chris’s scholarship,” Thiede said. “The story had been co-opted as proof that Minnesota was always on the right side of history, thank goodness for the white abolitionists, and that’s where it stopped. 

“Eliza became removed from her own narrative. One of our goals was to make her the main character of her story again,” said Thiede. 

The exhibit also sheds light on Minnesota’s uneasy relationship with slavery before the Civil War. During the mid-1800s, wealthy southern enslavers routinely traveled north by steamboat for business or leisure, often bringing enslaved people with them. These visitors were welcomed, accommodated, and rarely challenged by Minnesotans who benefited from their patronage.

Eliza Winston’s journey illustrates that dynamic. Her stay at a hotel that catered to southern travelers, and the outrage her self-liberation provoked among locals, underscore the state’s quiet tolerance of slavery at the time.

The exhibit’s message also resonates amid current debates about how history is told in museums. Following recent political criticism of federal museums for highlighting the nation’s legacy of slavery and racism, the American Alliance of Museums condemned “growing threats of censorship” directed at institutions that present difficult truths.

Thiede believes Eliza’s story stands as a necessary counterpoint to such erasure. “Any exhibit about slavery is inherently heavy,” she said. 

“But we want visitors to focus on Eliza’s bravery and determination while acknowledging the harsh realities of slavery’s presence here. It’s crucial that this history isn’t whitewashed or forgotten. In many ways, this exhibit is even more powerful today than when it was first imagined.”

“Winston: A Woman’s Fight for Freedom in Minnesota” is open to the public at the Hennepin History Museum through October 2027. For more information, visit www.hennepinhistory.org.

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