How a Fugitive Slave’s Jailbreak Fueled the Rise of the Republican Party
Our American Stories
iHeartPodcasts
4.6 • 817 Ratings
🗓️ 22 August 2025
⏱️ 20 minutes
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Summary
On this episode of Our American Stories, in the tense years before the Civil War, Joshua Glover — a man who had escaped slavery — was captured in Wisconsin under the Fugitive Slave Act. His fate seemed sealed until local abolitionists staged a daring public rescue that defied federal law in broad daylight, breaking down the doors of a jail to save him from bondage. That single moment of defiance helped give rise to the Republican Party and became a pivotal turning point in the fight for freedom that would shape the course of the Civil War. Michael Jahr, the creator of the documentary "Liberty at Stake," and Dr. Robert Baker, author of "The Rescue of Joshua Glover," share the remarkable story.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:14.0 | And we continue with our American stories. |
| 0:17.6 | Up next, a story about an event in American history with profound implications and a story |
| 0:23.6 | that's been forgotten over time. Here to tell the story of the rescue of Joshua Glover, |
| 0:29.4 | a fugitive slave, is Dr. Robert Baker and Michael Jarre, who's the creator of the documentary |
| 0:36.5 | Liberty at stake, the Joshua Glover story. |
| 0:40.2 | Here's Michael to start us off at the moment that would change Joshua Glover's life forever. |
| 0:47.6 | On the night of March 10, 1854, he was playing cards with a couple of friends in his home. |
| 0:54.8 | What he didn't know, his former slave owner never stopped looking, and the slave |
| 1:00.8 | catchers... |
| 1:01.8 | Knock on the door. Glover is suspicious. He has heard that there are slave catchers abroad. |
| 1:07.2 | There had been some people snooping around the day before. |
| 1:09.7 | So he says, don't answer the door. |
| 1:12.9 | But his friend unlatched it and the posse swept in. |
| 1:20.3 | I came across the story of Joshua Glover in the Milwaukee County Historical Archives. I was working on industrial tort law. |
| 1:29.8 | I believe I first came across this story maybe 10 years ago. There is a plaque in downtown |
| 1:36.3 | Milwaukee just on the corner of a park. And the plaque commemorates what took place in that |
| 1:43.3 | square in 1854. |
| 1:46.1 | And there's just enough there to kind of wet your appetite. |
| 1:48.8 | The short story of it was that he was jailed in Milwaukee as a fugitive slave. |
| 1:53.5 | Brought to the courthouse, which had been in that square back at that time. |
| 1:57.4 | And his reputed slave owner, a man by the name of Benamy Garland, had invoked |
... |
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