Back to top

Godfrey, Joseph (ca.1830–1909)

  • Cite
  • Share
  • Correct
  • Print
Scan of a drawing of Joseph Godfrey, 1862. Drawing by Robert O. Sweeny.

Joseph Godfrey, 1862. Drawing by Robert O. Sweeny.

The US–Dakota War of 1862 was a turning point in Minnesota history. Joseph Godfrey, an enslaved man who escaped his owners, joined the Dakota in their fight against white settler-colonists that summer and fall. He was one of only two African Americans to do so.

Joseph Godfrey was born into slavery around 1830 in Mendota. He was the son of a French Canadian voyageur named Joseph Godefroi and Courtney (sometimes known as Polly), an enslaved woman brought to Fort Snelling by an American army officer and later sold to Alexis Bailly. Godfrey spent his first few years in the Bailly household with his mother. Not much is known about his childhood except that he received little to no education. As he grew older, Godfrey was hired out to serve as an aide for Henry H. Sibley, a prominent trader (and later the first governor of Minnesota) who played a key role in the US–Dakota War.

Having suffered ill treatment from his owners, Godfrey ran away to seek refuge among the Dakota. He later moved with them to the Lower Sioux Agency, where he married a daughter of Wahpa Duta (Red Leaf) in 1857. In August 1862, while helping local Dakota load hay onto a wagon, Godfrey was approached by a Dakota man who announced that all the white people had been killed at the Agency. On the spot, Godfrey was asked what side he would take. Afraid for his life and family, Godfrey felt compelled to join the war.

Later that fall, Godfrey was accused by Sibley of joining the Dakota between August 18 and September 26, 1862, and actively participating in attacks. Dakota warriors awarded him the name "Atokte," meaning "slayer of many" in Dakota. Godfrey denied he had killed anyone. However, there were conflicting reports about his role in the conflict and how active he really was.

Godfrey surrendered along with a group of about a thousand Dakota on September 26, after the September 23 Battle of Wood Lake. He was the first person tried by the military commission on September 28, 1862. In an effort to escape execution, Godfrey testified against eleven of the thirty-eight Dakota warriors who were eventually hung on December 26, 1862. Although he was not convicted of murder, he was convicted of participating in the fighting and sentenced to death by hanging. In exchange for Godfrey's testimony, the commission recommended that President Lincoln commute his sentence to ten years imprisonment. In its recommendation to Lincoln, the court commission stated that "a large number of men of the very worst character would have gone unpunished" without Godfrey's testimony. Lincoln agreed to the commutation and later issued a full pardon.

Godfrey was sent to Camp McClellan in Davenport, Iowa, to serve his prison sentence. After serving three years, he was pardoned and freed in 1866. Upon his release, he settled on the Santee Reservation in Nebraska.

Godfrey spent the rest of his life on the Santee Reservation, where he passed away from natural causes in July 1909. Godfrey's body was buried at the Episcopalian Cemetery on the reservation.

  • Cite
  • Share
  • Correct
  • Print
© Minnesota Historical Society
  • Bibliography
  • Related Resources

Anderson, Gary Clayton, and Alan R. Woolworth, eds. Through Dakota Eyes: Narrative Accounts of the Minnesota Indian War of 1862. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1988.

Bachman, Walt. Northern Slave, Black Dakota: The Life and Times of Joseph Godfrey. Bloomington, MN: Pond Dakota Press, 2013.
Editor's Note: Northern Slave, Black Dakota was the main source used in the writing and revision of this article.

Carley, Kenneth. The Dakota War of 1862. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1976.

Chomsky, Carol. The United States-Dakota War Trials: A Study in Military Injustice. Stanford, CA: Stanford Law Review 43, no. 1 (November 1990): 13–98.
http://www.chgs.umn.edu/educational/addInfo/DakotaWarTrials.pdf

Dahlin, Curtis A. Dakota Uprising Victims: Gravestones and Stories. Edina, MN: Beaver's Pond Press, 2007.

——— . Dakota Uprising: A Pictorial History. Edina, MN: Beaver's Pond Press, 2009.

Isch, John. The Dakota Trials: Including the Complete Transcripts and Explanatory Notes on the Military Commission Trials in Minnesota, 1862–1864. New Ulm, MN: Brown County Historical Society, 2012.

Reynolds, Dale, and Robert E. Lester. "Dakota Conflict of 1862." Witness accounts. Manuscript collection, Nicollet County Historical Society, St. Peter. 1907.

Related Images

Scan of a drawing of Joseph Godfrey, 1862. Drawing by Robert O. Sweeny.
Scan of a drawing of Joseph Godfrey, 1862. Drawing by Robert O. Sweeny.

Turning Point

In August 1862, Joseph Godfrey joins the Dakota as one of only two African Americans to fight in the US–Dakota War.

Chronology

ca.1830

Joseph Godfrey is born in Mendota.

1857

Joseph Godfrey marries a daughter of Wahpa Duta (Red Leaf) at the Lower Sioux Agency.

1862

In August Godfrey joins the Dakota in the US–Dakota War. Later on that year, in exchange for his life, he testifies against eleven of the thirty-eight Dakotas who were later sentenced to execution.

1866

Godfrey is released from imprisonment at Camp McClellan in Davenport, Iowa, and goes to live on the Santee Reservation in Nebraska.

1909

Joseph Godfrey dies.