It Took Courage

On August 22, 1860, an enslaved woman from Mississippi named Eliza Winston petitioned for her freedom before a judge in Minnesota—and she won. After she left the state for Canada, the abolitionists who helped her escape her enslavers told and retold the story, emphasizing their own actions; their detractors claimed they had used Winston as a  pawn. Historians’ accounts emphasize the mobs who battled in the streets after the ruling and the implications of the events for Minnesota politics. W