BECHS History Book Club – Winter Series Session 3

It Took Courage by Christopher P. Lehman
January – March 2026
$50/Series

Lehman uncovers the story of Winston’s first forty-two years and her long struggle to obtain her freedom. She was sold away from her birth family; her husband, a free man, died before he could purchase her freedom. She labored in Tennessee, Louisiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Minnesota. For thirty-one years she was enslaved by the family of President Andrew Jackson, who bought her for his great-niece and paid a cousin of James K. Polk to hold her in trust. Winston’s victory produced a compelling irony: a woman Jackson himself had enslaved defeated a part of his legacy in Minnesota.

The survival of the remarkable story of Eliza Winston’s battle for individual freedom is an important contribution to the larger understanding of what slavery meant on this continent and how it affected individual lives—in both North and South. Winston’s experience demonstrates the lengths to which a person would go to escape slavery, attempting to work both outside and inside the flawed and inequitable laws of the time, until finally receiving justice. If the traditional accounts relied on stereotypical depictions of Winston as “simple-minded,” in Lehman’s skillful description, Winston appears as a capable, mature woman who understood her life and her values. Eliza Winston herself made the bold decision to leave behind everything she had known for an uncertain but free future.

BECHS History Book Club Session – It Took Courage

March 21, 11 a.m. – Book Discussion

The quarterly book club goes beyond a classic group book read and discussion. Over three months, while participants read the book, additional monthly sessions will include a discussion of the book’s setting and social history, a special presentation on a related historical topic, and will conclude with a group book discussion.

The BECHS History Book Club is $50, which includes a paperback copy of the book, admission to the speaker, and group book discussion, refreshments, and a small gift for completing the activities. ($60 value!) All programs will be held at the History Center or virtually if winter weather is a concern.

Already have a copy of the book, but want to come to the speaker or just the book discussion? Individual programs are $10 each.