Authorities in the state of Wisconsin only tried to enforce the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 once. But before they had a chance to hold a trial in Milwaukee, thousands of local people on horseback descended upon the jail and freed Joshua Glover from his captors, making sure he got to Canada, rather than being taken back to Missouri.
This is one of so many inspiring stories of solidarity from the history of humanity. I probably first heard about it from Ben Manski, who knows more about Wisconsin state history than anyone I've met. I've been meaning to write this song for years. Recently being in Wisconsin, I shared this story with a number of people, most of whom had never heard of it, which made me want to write the song more.
In Wisconsin in 1854 (Song for Joshua Glover)
Gather round me, friends, and I’ll tell to you a tale
About the day one young man was taken off to jail
And shipped north up Lake Michigan for a trial to see
If he should be sent back to live in slavery
A life of bondage was what Joshua had seen
But then he left Missouri, and moved to Racine
Where he worked in a saw mill, by the lake shore
In Wisconsin in 1854
When the word got 'round, outrage spread
The idea of sending people back to the bondage they had fled
Was one that could not be allowed to stand
Although it was the law of the land
Passed by the Congress, four years prior
Guaranteed to start a prairie fire
Which was what would be in store
In Wisconsin in 1854
Thousands went to Haymarket Square
The most people who ever had gathered there
In Racine, where they decided they’d go see
How that trial would go up in Milwaukee
And when they got there and looked around
Saw the thousands more people on the ground
Who had come on horseback ready for war
In Wisconsin in 1854
The jail turned out to be no match at all
For all of the people who’d answered the call
They laid siege to the place til they’d gotten their man
And then together the thousands they ran
Away from the cops, and then onward, forth
The Underground Railroad brought him north
So Joshua Glover would be a slave never more
In Wisconsin in 1854
No more attempts would ever be made
Since that Milwaukee prison raid
To enforce this federal law
After the rising that everyone saw
It was dead in the water, and that’s a fact
The Fugitive Slave Act
When all the people said what they stood for
In Wisconsin in 1854
Gather round me, friends, and I’ll tell to you a tale
About the day one young man was taken off to jail
And shipped north up Lake Michigan for a trial to see
If he should be sent back to live in slavery
Upcoming plans in Michigan, BC, Oregon, and Europe…
New song: "In Wisconsin in 1854 (Song for Joshua Glover)"