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8 Law & Ineq. 151 (1989-1990)
The Summer Christmas Came to Minnesota: The Case of Eliza Winston, a Slave

handle is hein.journals/lieq8 and id is 159 raw text is: The Summer Christmas Came to Minnesota: The Case of Eliza Winston, a Slave 1, 2 William D. Green* The law is the witness and external deposit of our moral life. Its history is the history of the moral development of the race. Oliver Wendell Holmes The Path of the Law 10 Harv. L. Rev. 457, 459 (1897) Between 1857 and 1860, local courts throughout the North in communities that were hostile to slavery often ignored the policy behind the Dred Scott decision3 by granting fugitive slaves their freedom. These courts seldom left official records, forcing histori- ans to rely on newspaper accounts, journals, and letters of partici- pants and observers to tell the story.4 Often these decisions arose from jealousies between jurists within a state.5 Just as frequently, these proceedings were mere formalities designed to lend a gloss of legitimacy to manumitting actions that had no legal foundation.6 Since slaveholders often dispatched men to recover their prop- erty,7 freed slaves had to be spirited away. Timing was critical: Like the matador's cape, the courts served to forestall and mis- direct the slaveowner who challenged his slave's claim to free- * The author received his B.A. from Gustavus Adolphus College in 1972, his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 1976, and his J.D. from the Univer- sity of Minnesota in May, 1989. He is currently an associate at the Minneapolis law firm of Frederikson & Byron. The author gratefully acknowledges the contribu- tions of Professor Carol Chomsky, Mr. Sumner Bright, and Mr. Samuel Goodrich. 1. The Case of Eliza Winston, a Slave was the title of the case in the Minneapolis court records, according to Return Holcombe, Compendium: History of Carver and Hennepin Counties, Minnesota 130 (1915). There is, however, no present record of the actual hearing. 2. This article received the Steven Block Award in 1989. 3. Dred Scott v. Sanford, 60 U.S. (19 How.) 393 (1857). 4. Most fugitive slave cases were not officially recorded since they were held before irregular courts and commissions. Paul Finkelman, Slavery in the Court- room 8 (1985). 5. Id. at 78. 6. See, e.g., John Hope Franklin, From Slavery to Freedom: A History of Ne- gro Americans 264-65 (3d ed. 1969). See also State Atlas, Aug. 29, 1860, at 1, col. 5, for the account of a New York City case. 7. Franklin, supra note 6, at 266.

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