Joshua Glover

Joshua Glover was a fugitive slave who escaped from the United States to Canada in the 1850s. His escape from recapture was part of the chain of events that led to the Civil War and the end of slavery in the U.S.

Originally from the state of Missouri, Glover escaped slavery in 1852 and sought asylum in Racine, Wisconsin. Two years later, upon learning his whereabouts, slave owner Benammi Stone Garland attempted to use the Fugitive Slave Act to recapture him. It was in this context, some nine days after Glover's escape, that the Republican Party was founded, in Ripon, Wisconsin.

Early life Little is known about Joshua Glover's early life. He was born into slavery in Missouri in the early 19th century and was sold at auction more than once across the state.

Records show that on New Year's Day, 1850, he was sold at St. Louis Courthouse Auction to Benammi Stone Garland, a local estate owner. At the time of the arrest, he was in his cabin (rented to him by Sinclair) playing cards with two friends, one of whom was Nathan Turner. Hearing a knock at the door, Glover told his friends not to open the door until he knew who it was. He was suspicious as rumors had spread of slavers being in town and that the day before, marshals had come looking for him. Residents gathered in the town square, and local abolitionists mobilized popular support and contacted newspapers. ^ With their demands unmet, Booth is said to have spurred the crowd to take matters into their own hands. Using pickaxes from a nearby construction site, and as pieces of lumber as a makeshift battering ram, the crowd broke through the jail walls, freeing Glover. He was seen as active member of the community and is recorded as having attended the fall fair of Annual Agricultural Association of Upper Canada in 1858.

Impact

Following Glover finding freedom and subsequent attention, the Wisconsin Supreme Court declared the Fugitive Slave Act was illegal, and other states followed suit. Even though the U.S. Supreme Court overruled the state supreme court's ruling, the state legislature passed legislation that declared ex-slaves living in Wisconsin would remain free, an act of open defiance to the Fugitive Slave Act.

This defiance by a northern state of federal laws allowing slavery preempted the Civil War and galvanized the North in fighting the South in order to preserve the Union with slavery abolished. commemorative plaques in Milwaukee and Racine, exhibits at the Racine Heritage Museum, celebrations of Joshua Glover Day on March 18 organized by America's Black Holocaust Museum, and a halfway house/treatment center named after him operated by Wisconsin Community Services in Milwaukee.