diff --git a/.rspec b/.rspec
deleted file mode 100644
index 04f5700..0000000
--- a/.rspec
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,3 +0,0 @@
---color
---format=documentation
---fail-fast
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/Gemfile.lock b/Gemfile.lock
index 8101f26..55de974 100644
--- a/Gemfile.lock
+++ b/Gemfile.lock
@@ -7,18 +7,10 @@ GEM
   remote: http://rubygems.org/
   specs:
     chardet (0.9.0)
-    diff-lcs (1.1.2)
+    minitest (4.6.2)
     rake (0.9.2)
     rake-compiler (0.7.9)
       rake
-    rspec (2.6.0)
-      rspec-core (~> 2.6.0)
-      rspec-expectations (~> 2.6.0)
-      rspec-mocks (~> 2.6.0)
-    rspec-core (2.6.4)
-    rspec-expectations (2.6.0)
-      diff-lcs (~> 1.1.2)
-    rspec-mocks (2.6.0)
 
 PLATFORMS
   ruby
@@ -26,5 +18,5 @@ PLATFORMS
 DEPENDENCIES
   chardet
   charlock_holmes!
+  minitest
   rake-compiler (>= 0.7.5)
-  rspec (>= 2.0.0)
diff --git a/Rakefile b/Rakefile
index 0d0cfa8..e943d79 100644
--- a/Rakefile
+++ b/Rakefile
@@ -1,23 +1,10 @@
-# rspec
-begin
-  require 'rspec'
-  require 'rspec/core/rake_task'
+require 'rake/testtask'
 
-  desc "Run all examples with RCov"
-  RSpec::Core::RakeTask.new 'spec:rcov' do |t|
-    t.rcov = true
-  end
-  RSpec::Core::RakeTask.new 'spec' do |t|
-    t.verbose = true
-  end
-
-  task :default => :spec
-rescue LoadError
-  puts "rspec, or one of its dependencies, is not available. Install it with: sudo gem install rspec"
+Rake::TestTask.new do |t|
+  t.pattern = "test/**/*_test.rb"
 end
 
-# rake-compiler
-require 'rake' unless defined? Rake
+task :default => :test
 
 gem 'rake-compiler', '>= 0.7.5'
 require "rake/extensiontask"
@@ -26,4 +13,4 @@ Rake::ExtensionTask.new 'charlock_holmes' do |ext|
   ext.lib_dir = File.join 'lib', 'charlock_holmes'
 end
 
-Rake::Task[:spec].prerequisites << :compile
\ No newline at end of file
+Rake::Task[:test].prerequisites << :compile
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/charlock_holmes.gemspec b/charlock_holmes.gemspec
index 1a3e4c4..5d93c66 100644
--- a/charlock_holmes.gemspec
+++ b/charlock_holmes.gemspec
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ Gem::Specification.new do |s|
 
   # tests
   s.add_development_dependency 'rake-compiler', ">= 0.7.5"
-  s.add_development_dependency 'rspec', ">= 2.0.0"
+  s.add_development_dependency 'minitest'
   # benchmarks
   s.add_development_dependency 'chardet'
 end
diff --git a/spec/spec_helper.rb b/spec/spec_helper.rb
deleted file mode 100644
index 39e470b..0000000
--- a/spec/spec_helper.rb
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,9 +0,0 @@
-$LOAD_PATH.unshift File.expand_path('../../lib', __FILE__)
-
-require 'charlock_holmes'
-require 'rspec'
-
-RSpec.configure do |config|
-  config.expect_with :stdlib
-  config.alias_example_to :test
-end
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/spec/converter_spec.rb b/test/converter_test.rb
similarity index 75%
rename from spec/converter_spec.rb
rename to test/converter_test.rb
index cf48a6e..5a9c9fe 100644
--- a/spec/converter_spec.rb
+++ b/test/converter_test.rb
@@ -1,9 +1,7 @@
-# encoding: utf-8
+require File.expand_path("../helper", __FILE__)
 
-require 'spec_helper'
-
-describe CharlockHolmes::Converter do
-  test 'is able to convert regular ascii content from ISO-8859-1 to UTF-16, and back again' do
+class ConverterTest < MiniTest::Unit::TestCase
+  def test_convert_ascii_from_iso859_1_to_utf16_and_back
     input = 'test'
 
     output = CharlockHolmes::Converter.convert input, 'ISO-8859-1', 'UTF-16'
@@ -15,7 +13,7 @@
     assert input == output
   end
 
-  test 'is able to convert UTF-8 content from UTF-8 to UTF-16, and back again' do
+  def test_convert_utf8_to_utf16_and_back
     input = 'λ, λ, λ'
 
     output = CharlockHolmes::Converter.convert input, 'UTF-8', 'UTF-16'
@@ -27,7 +25,7 @@
     assert input == output
   end
 
-  test 'all params must be strings' do
+  def test_params_must_be_strings
     assert_raises TypeError do
       CharlockHolmes::Converter.convert nil, 'UTF-8', 'UTF-16'
     end
@@ -40,8 +38,10 @@
       CharlockHolmes::Converter.convert 'lol', 'UTF-8', nil
     end
 
-    assert_nothing_raised do
+    begin
       CharlockHolmes::Converter.convert 'lol', 'UTF-8', 'UTF-16'
+    rescue Exception => e
+      assert_nil e, "#{e.class.name} raised, expected nothing"
     end
   end
 end
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/spec/encoding_detector_spec.rb b/test/encoding_detector_test.rb
similarity index 62%
rename from spec/encoding_detector_spec.rb
rename to test/encoding_detector_test.rb
index cf919ed..6d79526 100644
--- a/spec/encoding_detector_spec.rb
+++ b/test/encoding_detector_test.rb
@@ -1,25 +1,23 @@
-# encoding: utf-8
+require File.expand_path("../helper", __FILE__)
 
-require 'spec_helper'
-
-describe CharlockHolmes::EncodingDetector do
-  before :all do
+class EncodingDetectorTest < MiniTest::Unit::TestCase
+  def setup
     @detector = CharlockHolmes::EncodingDetector.new
   end
 
-  test 'has a class-level detect method' do
+  def test_has_class_level_detect_method
     CharlockHolmes::EncodingDetector.respond_to? :detect
     detected = CharlockHolmes::EncodingDetector.detect 'test'
     assert_equal 'ISO-8859-1', detected[:encoding]
   end
 
-  test 'has a class-level detect method that accepts an encoding hint' do
+  def test_class_level_detect_accepts_encoding_hint
     CharlockHolmes::EncodingDetector.respond_to? :detect
     detected = CharlockHolmes::EncodingDetector.detect 'test', 'UTF-8'
     assert_equal 'ISO-8859-1', detected[:encoding]
   end
 
-  test 'has a class-level detect_all method' do
+  def test_has_class_level_detect_all_method
     CharlockHolmes::EncodingDetector.respond_to? :detect_all
     detected_list = CharlockHolmes::EncodingDetector.detect_all 'test'
     assert detected_list.is_a? Array
@@ -28,7 +26,7 @@
     assert_equal ['ISO-8859-1', 'ISO-8859-2', 'UTF-8'], encoding_list
   end
 
-  test 'has a class-level detect_all method that accepts an encoding hint' do
+  def test_class_level_detect_all_method_accepts_encoding_hint
     CharlockHolmes::EncodingDetector.respond_to? :detect_all
     detected_list = CharlockHolmes::EncodingDetector.detect_all 'test', 'UTF-8'
     assert detected_list.is_a? Array
@@ -37,19 +35,19 @@
     assert_equal ['ISO-8859-1', 'ISO-8859-2', 'UTF-8'], encoding_list
   end
 
-  test 'has a detect method' do
+  def test_has_detect_method
     @detector.respond_to? :detect
     detected = @detector.detect 'test'
     assert_equal 'ISO-8859-1', detected[:encoding]
   end
 
-  test 'has a detect method that accepts an encoding hint' do
+  def test_detect_accepts_encoding_hint
     @detector.respond_to? :detect
     detected = @detector.detect 'test', 'UTF-8'
     assert_equal 'ISO-8859-1', detected[:encoding]
   end
 
-  test 'has a detect_all method' do
+  def test_has_detect_all_method
     @detector.respond_to? :detect_all
     detected_list = @detector.detect_all 'test'
     assert detected_list.is_a? Array
@@ -58,7 +56,7 @@
     assert_equal ['ISO-8859-1', 'ISO-8859-2', 'UTF-8'], encoding_list
   end
 
-  test 'has a detect_all method that accepts an encoding hint' do
+  def test_detect_all_accepts_encoding_hint
     @detector.respond_to? :detect_all
     detected_list = @detector.detect_all 'test', 'UTF-8'
     assert detected_list.is_a? Array
@@ -67,7 +65,7 @@
     assert_equal ['ISO-8859-1', 'ISO-8859-2', 'UTF-8'], encoding_list
   end
 
-  test 'has a strip_tags flag' do
+  def test_strip_tags_flag
     detector = CharlockHolmes::EncodingDetector.new
     detector.strip_tags = true
     assert detector.strip_tags
@@ -82,7 +80,7 @@
     assert_equal 'UTF-8', detection[:encoding]
   end
 
-  test 'has a list of supported encodings' do
+  def test_has_list_of_supported_encodings
     CharlockHolmes::EncodingDetector.respond_to? :supported_encodings
     supported_encodings = CharlockHolmes::EncodingDetector.supported_encodings
 
@@ -90,32 +88,30 @@
     assert supported_encodings.include? 'UTF-8'
   end
 
-  context 'encoding detection' do
-    MAPPING = [
-      ['repl2.cljs',                'ISO-8859-1', :text],
-      ['core.rkt',                  'UTF-8',      :text],
-      ['cl-messagepack.lisp',       'ISO-8859-1', :text],
-      ['TwigExtensionsDate.es.yml', 'UTF-8',      :text],
-      ['AnsiGraph.psm1',            'UTF-16LE',   :text],
-      ['laholator.py',              'UTF-8',      :text],
-      ['hello_world',               nil,          :binary]
-    ]
-
+  MAPPING = [
+    ['repl2.cljs',                'ISO-8859-1', :text],
+    ['core.rkt',                  'UTF-8',      :text],
+    ['cl-messagepack.lisp',       'ISO-8859-1', :text],
+    ['TwigExtensionsDate.es.yml', 'UTF-8',      :text],
+    ['AnsiGraph.psm1',            'UTF-16LE',   :text],
+    ['laholator.py',              'UTF-8',      :text],
+    ['hello_world',               nil,          :binary]
+  ]
+
+  def test_detection_works_as_expected
     MAPPING.each do |mapping|
       file, encoding, type = mapping
 
-      test "#{file} should be detected as #{encoding || 'binary'}" do
-        path = File.expand_path "../fixtures/#{file}", __FILE__
-        content = File.read path
-        guessed = @detector.detect content
+      path = File.expand_path "../fixtures/#{file}", __FILE__
+      content = File.read path
+      guessed = @detector.detect content
 
-        assert_equal encoding, guessed[:encoding]
-        assert_equal type, guessed[:type]
+      assert_equal encoding, guessed[:encoding]
+      assert_equal type, guessed[:type]
 
-        if content.respond_to?(:force_encoding) && guessed[:type] == :text
-          content.force_encoding guessed[:encoding]
-          assert content.valid_encoding?
-        end
+      if content.respond_to?(:force_encoding) && guessed[:type] == :text
+        content.force_encoding guessed[:encoding]
+        assert content.valid_encoding?
       end
     end
   end
diff --git a/spec/fixtures/AnsiGraph.psm1 b/test/fixtures/AnsiGraph.psm1
similarity index 100%
rename from spec/fixtures/AnsiGraph.psm1
rename to test/fixtures/AnsiGraph.psm1
diff --git a/spec/fixtures/TwigExtensionsDate.es.yml b/test/fixtures/TwigExtensionsDate.es.yml
similarity index 100%
rename from spec/fixtures/TwigExtensionsDate.es.yml
rename to test/fixtures/TwigExtensionsDate.es.yml
diff --git a/spec/fixtures/cl-messagepack.lisp b/test/fixtures/cl-messagepack.lisp
similarity index 100%
rename from spec/fixtures/cl-messagepack.lisp
rename to test/fixtures/cl-messagepack.lisp
diff --git a/spec/fixtures/core.rkt b/test/fixtures/core.rkt
similarity index 100%
rename from spec/fixtures/core.rkt
rename to test/fixtures/core.rkt
diff --git a/spec/fixtures/hello_world b/test/fixtures/hello_world
similarity index 100%
rename from spec/fixtures/hello_world
rename to test/fixtures/hello_world
diff --git a/spec/fixtures/laholator.py b/test/fixtures/laholator.py
similarity index 100%
rename from spec/fixtures/laholator.py
rename to test/fixtures/laholator.py
diff --git a/spec/fixtures/repl2.cljs b/test/fixtures/repl2.cljs
similarity index 100%
rename from spec/fixtures/repl2.cljs
rename to test/fixtures/repl2.cljs
diff --git a/test/helper.rb b/test/helper.rb
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e3e3583
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/helper.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+# Basic test environment.
+
+# blah fuck this
+require 'rubygems' if !defined?(Gem)
+require 'bundler/setup'
+
+require 'charlock_holmes'
+
+# bring in minitest
+require 'minitest/autorun'
+
+# put lib and test dirs directly on load path
+$LOAD_PATH.unshift File.expand_path('../../lib', __FILE__)
+$LOAD_PATH.unshift File.expand_path('..', __FILE__)
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/spec/string_method_spec.rb b/test/string_methods_test.rb
similarity index 76%
rename from spec/string_method_spec.rb
rename to test/string_methods_test.rb
index 582e7c4..aea09db 100644
--- a/spec/string_method_spec.rb
+++ b/test/string_methods_test.rb
@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
-require 'spec_helper'
+require File.expand_path("../helper", __FILE__)
 require 'charlock_holmes/string'
 
-describe String do
-  test 'has a detect_encoding method' do
+class StringMethodsTest < MiniTest::Unit::TestCase
+  def test_adds_detect_encoding_method
     str = 'test'
     str.respond_to? :detect_encoding
 
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@
     assert_equal 'ISO-8859-1', detected[:encoding]
   end
 
-  test 'has a detect_encoding method that accepts an encoding hint' do
+  def test_detect_encoding_accepts_encoding_hint_param
     str = 'test'
     str.respond_to? :detect_encoding
 
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@
     assert_equal 'ISO-8859-1', detected[:encoding]
   end
 
-  test 'has a detect_encodings method' do
+  def test_adds_detect_encodings_method
     str = 'test'
     str.respond_to? :detect_encodings
 
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@
     assert_equal ['ISO-8859-1', 'ISO-8859-2', 'UTF-8'], encoding_list
   end
 
-  test 'has a detect_encodings method that accepts an encoding hint' do
+  def test_detect_encodings_accepts_encoding_hint_param
     str = 'test'
     str.respond_to? :detect_encodings
 
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@
   end
 
   if RUBY_VERSION =~ /1.9/
-    test 'has a detect_encoding! method' do
+    def test_adds_detect_encoding_bang_method
       str = 'test'
       str.respond_to? :detect_encoding!