INFORUM — Minnesota is proud of its heritage as the first state to offer men to fight for the Union in the Civil War. Its historical collections include a Confederate flag captured by Minnesota infantry volunteers during bloody Pickett’s Charge in the Battle of Gettysburg.
Minnesota, admitted to the Union as a free state in 1858, was the temporary home of a slave named Dred Scott whose unsuccessful legal quest for freedom was one of the smoldering sparks that later ignited the Civil War.
And Minnesota, with a population of 180,000 during the outbreak of the war in 1861, would send 24,000 men to fight for the union, shouldering a disproportionate share that it proudly counts as part of its early history.
Much less known, however — and much less comforting to remember — is how the wealth of slaveholders was critical in developing Minnesota during its territorial and early statehood eras.
Slave money, in fact, was crucial in founding at least two Minnesota towns, Shakopee and Belle Plaine, and helped prop up the University of Minnesota as it struggled during its fledgling days.
Those startling facts were unearthed by the historical sleuthing of Christopher Lehman, a professor at St. Cloud State University who recently wrote a book, “Slavery’s Reach: Southern Slaveholders and the North Star State.”
Read more: Minnesota fought for the Union in the Civil War. So how did the state benefit from slavery?
