My Ancestor Helped Write the U.S. Constitution—and It Changed My Life

Countless families tell stories about long-ago ancestors. Some are well documented, while others have been passed down and modified from generation to generation like a years-long game of telephone. That latter category often includes stories about those who came to the New World on the Mayflower or were a Cherokee Indian princess. Most of those legends are just that—legends.

Like a lot of families, then, I was never sure whether a story my grandma used to tell was just a legend, or whether we actually were direct descendants of a historically significant figure from the Founding of America. Not that I doubted her, but I should’ve known better than to think that my science-teacher grandmother would just casually repeat a story without evidence. After a not-insubstantial amount of online genealogical research earlier this year, I realized the significance—both historical and personal—of my grandma’s claimed ancestor was greater than I—and maybe even she—ever imagined.

Joseph Winston was born in Virginia in 1746. He was a fighter: When he was 17, during the French and Indian War, he volunteered for an expedition that was ambushed. He was shot twice but survived, foraging on berries to make his escape. One of the bullets remained in his body the rest of his life.

Winston moved to North Carolina as a young man, served as an officer in the Surry County militia, and became a leader in his backcountry community. Things got interesting in 1776, when Winston served on the Halifax Provincial Congress and voted to instruct the North Carolina delegation to the Continental Congress to vote for independence from Great Britain.

Winston’s role in the founding of the eventual United States wasn’t limited to musty halls. During the Revolutionary War, then-Major Winston joined Colonel Benjamin Cleveland to defeat Tory forces at Kings Mountain near the North Carolina-South Carolina border in October 1780. The following year, Major Winston served under General Andrew Pickens in the Battle of Guilford Court House in North Carolina.

In recognition of his service, he was awarded the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Stokes County militia and in 1812 was honored by the North Carolina legislature. (The legislature awarded him a sword for his heroism. In response, Winston said: “I trust that the sword which is directed to be presented to me will never be tarnished by cowardice, but be wielded in defense of my country’s right and independence.”) To my amazement, I recently discovered that the Guilford Court House National Military Park in Greensboro, North Carolina, contains a statue of Winston, and in 1906 his remains were reinterred at the Guilford Battlefield.

Following the Revolutionary War, Winston was a delegate to the 1788 Hillsborough Convention, where the Constitution was considered for ratification by North Carolina. Here’s where Winston played a fascinating role in the Founding: Ten other states had already ratified the document, but North Carolinians were worried that individual liberties weren’t explicitly protected in the draft. According to historian J. Edwin Hendricks, one North Carolina delegate read aloud a letter from Thomas Jefferson to James Madison suggesting it would be easier to add amendments protecting individual liberty if some states refused to ratify the Constitution in its current form. So Winston joined a majority of the North Carolina delegation in voting neither to ratify nor reject the proposed Constitution.

A year later, in 1789, Winston was a delegate to the Fayetteville Convention. By this point the Bill of Rights was already in progress—so this time, Winston voted with the majority to ratify the Constitution. North Carolina was the 12th of 13 states to ratify, and the Bill of Rights was added shortly after ratification.

Winston went on to a lengthy career in politics. He served in the North Carolina Senate for seven years and the U.S. House of Representatives for three terms, where he was known as a reliable Jeffersonian. He sent regular letters to his constituents; in one, he wrote: “[T]hat every citizen enjoy equal liberty, and that national happiness and prosperity may be preserved inviolate, is the wish of my heart.” He died on April 21, 1815.

In 1849, Stokes County, North Carolina, was divided, and the seat of the new county (Forsyth) was named after him. In 1913, the town merged with nearby Salem, and today the combined city of Winston-Salem is the fifth-most populous in North Carolina.

I’m one of many Americans who can now trace their lineage back to Joseph Winston. (He had 12 children. Three were triplet sons, one of whom became a Mississippi state supreme court judge, another the lieutenant governor of Mississippi, and the other a major general in the War of 1812.)

Since researching Winston’s life—particularly his small role in making sure the Constitution included the Bill of Rights, thereby protecting the individual freedoms of Americans for generations to come—I’ve felt even more connected to my work at Pacific Legal Foundation. As a PLF attorney, I fight for PLF’s clients’ constitutional rights every day. The foundational document that Winston and others debated and ratified is now, almost 250 years later, still protecting Americans from government encroachment.

While I will resist the urge to state in legal briefs discussing constitutional provisions what my five-times-great-grandpa must’ve thought the provision meant, I will gladly take a minute to imagine what those debates over ratification were like. And knowing that one of my ancestors literally fought against tyranny, and won, helps inspire me to carry on fighting for liberty, especially since I get to do it from the safety of an office.

Constitution Day is always celebrated at PLF. It’s an annual reminder of our unique place in this world and an opportunity to renew our efforts to make real the protections afforded to all Americans. For me and my family, Constitution Day is also now an opportunity to explore and remember where we came from. I only hope we can keep burning bright the fire for liberty that Grandpa Winston helped light.

(Photo at top is the monument of Joseph Winston at Guilford National Military Park.)

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