The Emancipation of Eliza Winston

Thursday, October 1, 2026
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Pioneer Bank, 1450 Adams St, Mankato

A Famous Trials Presentation

On August 21, 1860, Eliza Winston, an enslaved woman from Mississippi brought suit under the Minnesota State Constitution for her freedom in a Minneapolis courtroom three years after the US Supreme Court’s Dred Scott v. Sandford decision that a slave residing in a free state was not entitled to his freedom under the US Constitution.

Learn about Minnesota’s one and only Freedom lawsuit, the circumstance that brought Ms. Winston to Minnesota and Minnesota’s complicated relationship with Southern business interests that sheds light on its less than abolitionist feelings about slaves and their Southern slave oligarchs.

Presenter

James Fleming practiced law in Minnesota for 35 years before his recent retirement, 22 of those years as a public defender. He served as the chief public defender for the 15 counties of the Fifth Judicial District in southwest Minnesota, based in Mankato and later for the Second Judicial District (Ramsey County).

Sponsor

Larry Nicol