October 11, 2025, through October 2027

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 one woman bravely fought for liberation and became the first and only enslaved person to gain their freedom in a Minnesota courtroom. Her emancipation became local lore and national propaganda, so much that she was largely excluded from her own narrative, one that reveals a remarkable journey of bravery and determination, and sheds light on Minnesota's complex relationship with slavery. Her name was Eliza Winston, and this is her story.

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 Christopheraaron Deanes.

Minnesota Spokesman Recorder, the oldest continuously operated black newspaper in Minnesota, reviewed the exhibit on November 6, 2025. Click here to read the review by Binta Kanteh.

Image Credit: Christopheraaron Deanes, Freedom, 2025. Oil on wood panel, 11 inches by 14 inches. Commissioned for the exhibit, the painting will become part of the museum's fine art collection.