Joshua Glover was enslaved in St. Louis, Missouri. As a young man he sought freedom in Wisconsin, only to be recaptured after a friend betrayed him. Defying the Fugitive Slave Act, Sherman Booth and other abolitionists helped Joshua escape via the Underground Railroad, and he later settled in Canada as a free man. These actions were part of a chain of events that led to the formation of the Republican Party and the declaration of the end of slavery in the United States.
Milwaukee Black History: How Joshua Glover's Rescue Contributed To The Repeal Of Fugitive Slave Act
The crowd freed Glover, cheering and parading him through the street to a nearby wagon. So began his journey through the Wisconsin network of the Underground Railroad.
Benson says Glover’s story was huge at the time, especially since Wisconsin defied the Fugitive Slave Law to free him — ultimately defying the U.S. Constitution.
"What Wisconsin did was hurry the Civil War on; that’s what Wisconsin did," he says.
Benson says the story was in newspapers across the country.
"And it was one of the many things that said that the war was necessary because the north was refusing to follow the rules that the south put on the table. The south said that all of our enslaved people must be returned — and it was agreed on — and the north said, 'No way. That’s not gonna happen here,'" he says.
And lengthy court battles followed. One of them ended in the Wisconsin Supreme Court deeming the Fugitive Slave Act unconstitutional. The law was later repealed.
For his role in Glover’s rescue, Booth was convicted in federal court, but the Wisconsin Supreme Court ordered his release on the grounds that the Fugitive Slave Act was unconstitutional. (Earlier it had issued a writ of habeas corpus releasing Booth from federal custody on the same grounds.) In Ableman v. Booth (1859), the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously held that state courts cannot nullify the decisions of federal courts, overturned the state court’s rulings, and affirmed the constitutionality of the Fugitive Slave Act.
The Glover incident, occurring at the same time that Congress was debating the fateful Kansas-Nebraska bill—which, when enacted, opened up those territories on the basis of popular sovereignty—played a key role in heightening antislavery sentiment in the state and in the formation of the Republican party in Wisconsin. These legal battles gave the party a “states’ rights” dimension that broadened its appeal. What had been a marginally Democratic state at the beginning of the 1850s became solidly Republican by decade’s end.
JOSHUA GLOVER AND THE END OF SLAVERY
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Joshua Glover was enslaved in St. Louis, Missouri. As a young man he sought freedom in Wisconsin, only to be recaptured after a friend betrayed him. Defying the Fugitive Slave Act, Sherman Booth and other abolitionists helped Joshua escape via the Underground Railroad, and he later settled in Canada as a free man. These actions were part of a chain of events that led to the formation of the Republican Party and the declaration of the end of slavery in the United States.
https://pbswisconsineducation.org/bio/joshua-glover/
Milwaukee Black History: How Joshua Glover's Rescue Contributed To The Repeal Of Fugitive Slave Act
The crowd freed Glover, cheering and parading him through the street to a nearby wagon. So began his journey through the Wisconsin network of the Underground Railroad.
Benson says Glover’s story was huge at the time, especially since Wisconsin defied the Fugitive Slave Law to free him — ultimately defying the U.S. Constitution.
"What Wisconsin did was hurry the Civil War on; that’s what Wisconsin did," he says.
Benson says the story was in newspapers across the country.
"And it was one of the many things that said that the war was necessary because the north was refusing to follow the rules that the south put on the table. The south said that all of our enslaved people must be returned — and it was agreed on — and the north said, 'No way. That’s not gonna happen here,'" he says.
And lengthy court battles followed. One of them ended in the Wisconsin Supreme Court deeming the Fugitive Slave Act unconstitutional. The law was later repealed.
https://www.wuwm.com/race-ethnicity/2021-02-03/milwaukee-black-history-how-joshua-glovers-rescue-contributed-to-the-repeal-of-fugitive-slave-act
For his role in Glover’s rescue, Booth was convicted in federal court, but the Wisconsin Supreme Court ordered his release on the grounds that the Fugitive Slave Act was unconstitutional. (Earlier it had issued a writ of habeas corpus releasing Booth from federal custody on the same grounds.) In Ableman v. Booth (1859), the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously held that state courts cannot nullify the decisions of federal courts, overturned the state court’s rulings, and affirmed the constitutionality of the Fugitive Slave Act.
The Glover incident, occurring at the same time that Congress was debating the fateful Kansas-Nebraska bill—which, when enacted, opened up those territories on the basis of popular sovereignty—played a key role in heightening antislavery sentiment in the state and in the formation of the Republican party in Wisconsin. These legal battles gave the party a “states’ rights” dimension that broadened its appeal. What had been a marginally Democratic state at the beginning of the 1850s became solidly Republican by decade’s end.
https://emke.uwm.edu/entry/joshua-glover/