Glover, Joshua
Runaway Slave
Joshua Glover
Head and shoulder's portrait of Joshua Glover. View the original source document: WHI 6270
b. St. Louis, Missouri
d. Canada
Joshua Glover was an enslaved African-American who escaped from his owner in Missouri in May, 1852. Glover made his way to Wisconsin where he found work in Racine. On March 11, 1854, he was tracked down by agents of his owner, physically subdued and arrested under the federal Fugitive Slave Law.
Break Out
His captors brought him to Milwaukee, which had a stronger jail and a weaker abolitionist community than Racine. However, about one hundred Racine anti-slavery activists took the next boat to Milwaukee, where they joined forces with abolitionists led by newspaper editor Sherman Booth. Around 6:00 p.m. on March 12, 1854, the demonstrators smashed the doors of the jail, liberated Glover and carried him to sympathetic friends in Waukesha. They later brought him to Racine secretly, where he boarded a boat for Canada.
Later Life
The Glover incident fueled anti-slavery sentiment in Wisconsin, and the prosecution of Booth led the Wisconsin Supreme Court to reject the federal Fugitive Slave Law.
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