The Sconi

A heroic moment in Wisconsin’s history deserves more attention, says Michael Jahr. So he’s making a movie about it.

“There are some stories that are so amazing, you say, ‘How could I have never heard that before?’” said Jahr, who was my colleague at the Badger Institute until last year. Now he’s writer and director on a team making a documentary about the Joshua Glover episode, the time when many Wisconsinites defied federal law to save a man from being dragged back into slavery.

Like all good memorials, this recounting has some lessons for us.

Glover’s story isn’t wholly unknown. Jahr said he’d read the plaque in downtown Milwaukee and ran across a gripping account at an estate sale. Murals at an I-43 underpass on downtown’s edge commemorate it. On Monday, Jahr and colleagues premiered the first version of their work on a particularly high-profile stage, the Republican National Convention.

It’s quite a tale. Glover was living in Racine in 1854, two years after he escaped slavery in Missouri when a bounty-hunting posse found him and dragged him off to Milwaukee’s jail, intending to return him to bondage. Their warrant was based on the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act, a federal law that bound officials and even citizens in every state, including those like Wisconsin that never were cursed with slavery, to refrain from helping fugitives and to cooperate with recapturing them.

In abolition-minded Wisconsin, “that was anathema,” said Jahr. “That was horrific.”

Racine abolitionists outraged by the bounty hunters’ abduction of a free man set off for Milwaukee by boat the next morning, bringing a sheriff to arrest the posse and telegraphing like-minded Milwaukeeans, among them Sherman Booth, editor of an abolitionist newspaper. Booth rode through the streets shouting that a man’s liberty was at stake, drawing a crowd estimated at 5,000 to the jail.

When it became clear the crowd’s demands—that Glover receive due process and not be jailed over the sabbath—would not be met; men used a beam from a nearby construction site to batter their way into the jail freeing Glover. “He was cheered almost like a celebrity,” said Jahr and was whisked away in a waiting wagon first to Prairieville (now Waukesha), then after some weeks of being hidden from still-prowling bounty hunters on a boat to Canada and safety.

In Wisconsin, the matter wasn’t over. “There was great risk,” said Jahr “not just for the underground railroad moving him along but for rescuers.” The Missourian claiming Glover as property sued Booth who eventually was financially ruined. The rescuers’ criminal cases for violating hated law volleyed back and forth between state and federal courts for years—Booth spent time behind bars—with Wisconsin Supreme Court eventually discarding federal Fugitive Slave Act in Wisconsin.

“This enraged South,” said Jahr “All these events in Wisconsin served drive wedge between North South.”

Jahr his colleagues looking offer expanded version documentary titled "Liberty Stake" by next spring broadcasters educators wanted 12-minute convention-length version—you can see Vimeo—ready time 50 visitors came town "because it's Milwaukee story Wisconsin story," as Jahr said As Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson says documentary one universal appeal

“It goes heart how passionate people were about freedom what America was,” said Jahr

That key lesson: Civil War fought understanding some states deprive Americans natural endowment liberty injury all It could not remain matter if-you-don't-like-slavery-don't-own-a-slave—not just because status western territories question but because federal law conscripted Wisconsinites what they saw evil logic slavery consumed every American's liberty

The second lesson: In republic law limits up citizens hold government account violating them—by battering down jail door or by Wisconsin Supreme Court justices daring nullify federal law

A third lesson comes what happened only nine days after Glover freed: Booth other abolitionists politically homeless failure smaller parties challenge dominant Democratic Party "recognized against odds new party needed," said Jahr They met schoolhouse Ripon form one dubbing Republican Party six years later its candidate Abraham Lincoln won White House

Divided other issues "the one thing unified absolute commitment founding ideals liberty all," said Jahr words Glover's rescue couldn't one-off

In Wisconsin elections "very quickly displaced pro-slavery party," said Jahr "It really model how grassroots movement influence politics culture large"

To sure influence led civil war But it's too much say Wisconsin's blow against slavery helped save America's soul It's moment worth remembering

Patrick McIlheran is Director Policy Badger Institute Permission reprint granted long author Badger Institute properly cited