Tuesday with a Scholar: Slavery’s Reach in Minnesota with Christopher Lehman

From 1849 to 1865, dozens of slaveholders invested in land and businesses in “free” Minnesota. Slaveholders’ wealth financially built several local communities, and in turn these investments supported slave plantations. Minnesota government officials worked for slaveholders, and local legislators even tried to legalize slavery for southern tourists bringing slaves with them to Minnesota. Through careful research in obscure records, censuses, newspapers, and archival collections, Christopher Lehman’s book Slavery’s Reach reveals this hidden history of northern complicity in building slaveholder wealth.