{"id":31022,"date":"2026-03-03T02:58:45","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T08:58:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/letters-science\/?p=31022"},"modified":"2026-03-03T19:53:35","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T01:53:35","slug":"take-a-ride-on-wisconsins-underground-railroad-with-uwm-faculty-as-your-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/letters-science\/in-focus-2026\/take-a-ride-on-wisconsins-underground-railroad-with-uwm-faculty-as-your-guide\/","title":{"rendered":"Take a ride on Wisconsin&#8217;s Underground Railroad, with 51ÁÔÆæ faculty as your guide"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Underground Railroad was a network of safehouses and secret routes that ferried fugitive slaves from the south to safety in the northern U.S. and Canada in the years leading up to America\u2019s Civil War. Some of those routes ran right through Wisconsin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A new PBS documentary, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/show\/wisconsins-underground-railroad\/\">Wisconsin\u2019s Underground Railroad<\/a>,\u201d details the state\u2019s role in this secretive operation and the stories of the courageous men and women who traveled the Railroad to pursue their freedom. The documentary features none other than 51ÁÔÆæ Associate Lecturer Robert \u201cBiko\u201d Baker, who teaches in the Department of African &amp; African Diaspora Studies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Baker sat down to talk about the documentary and the incredible stories he was able to tell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading size-h4\" id=\"h-what-an-exciting-project-to-be-part-of-how-did-you-come-to-be-part-of-the-pbs-documentary\">What an exciting project to be part of! How did you come to be part of the PBS documentary?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Brian Ewig, the filmmaker for PBS, emailed in late spring and asked if I wanted to be involved. I said, absolutely! It sounds like a great topic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Underground Railroad isn\u2019t necessarily my subject matter expertise. But I\u2019ve studied this time period because I got a PhD in history, so I have to sometimes own that. I also asked them to have my back by talking to <a href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/letters-science\/in-focus-2022\/clayborn-benson-an-alum-and-a-history-student-again\/\">Clayborn Benson<\/a>, who was a 51ÁÔÆæ student, and is the head of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitmilwaukee.org\/listing\/wisconsin-black-historical-society-and-museum\/6188\/\">Wisconsin Black Historical Society<\/a>. I saw it as a tag-team effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mr. Benson is like a human AI when it comes to Black American history. It\u2019s incredible. Mr. Benson illuminated the passageway from Waukesha to Burlington, Wisconsin, and how there is an informal network to Racine. He uncovers the whole context and backdrop to places in southeastern Wisconsin, and why it was a hotbed. He\u2019s such an important part of our community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading size-h4\" id=\"h-what-does-this-documentary-cover\">What does this documentary cover?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"alignleft uwm-c-img--left uwm-c-img--caption-gray\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/letters-science\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/255\/2026\/03\/Joshua-Glover-mural-300x200.webp\" alt=\"A mural on the side of a highway. The mural depicts an uprising rescuing an enslaved man from jail.\" class=\"wp-image-31024\" srcset=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/letters-science\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/255\/2026\/03\/Joshua-Glover-mural-300x200.webp 300w, https:\/\/uwm.edu\/letters-science\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/255\/2026\/03\/Joshua-Glover-mural.webp 720w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption>A mural on an I-43 overpass in Milwaukee shows Joshua Glover&#8217;s escape from prison and slavery. Photo by Jimmy Emerson.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>It covers the history of Wisconsin\u2019s Black Underground Railroad. It takes a look through the lens of two stories. There was Caroline Quarles, who was the first Black American to come through Wisconsin on the Underground Railroad. The one that we know best, I think, is Joshua Glover, because his image is all throughout the city and landmarks and signs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It covers those stories and then investigates how, perhaps, people in Wisconsin were a lot more involved in this than people ever imagined. It\u2019s a really well-done piece of history. I\u2019m proud of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading size-h4\" id=\"h-what-is-caroline-quarles-story\">What is Caroline Quarles\u2019 story?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Caroline Quarles is \u2013 I hate to use these words, but from that time, she\u2019s 1\/8th Black so she\u2019s an \u2018octoroon.\u2019 She\u2019s part of a family where her grandfather is her owner. On July 4, 1843, she gets up and leaves Missouri, and by way of boat and ferry, gets to Milwaukee. When she gets to Milwaukee, Samuel Brown \u2013 who owned (the land) where Venus Gardens is now on 17<sup>th<\/sup> and Fond du Lac and Johnson\u2019s Park \u2013 harbors her and takes her to Waukesha, Wisconsin. Eventually she finds her way to Canda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Twenty years after her time in Canada, she writes back to her abolitionist friends: \u2018Thanks, sir.\u2019 So as a historian, we have these documents to track (her journey). So that\u2019s really cool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading size-h4\" id=\"h-it-s-very-cool-because-as-i-understand-it-there-are-not-many-written-records-from-folks-who-were-part-of-the-underground-railroad\">It\u2019s very cool, because as I understand it, there are not many written records from folks who were part of the Underground Railroad.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>You\u2019re not leaving records, you know what I mean? You\u2019re on the run! \u2026 But the thing is, we\u2019ll never know. One of the people who was on the mercantile side of the Underground Railroad wrote a letter in the 1890s and said that they had harbored over 100 people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We don\u2019t really know what happened, but there\u2019s evidence right here in front of us. You can walk up and down Brown Street on Milwaukee\u2019s north side and know that there was a guy who put it on the line to support a woman of color.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading size-h4\" id=\"h-was-there-anything-that-surprised-you-during-your-research-for-this-part\">Was there anything that surprised you during your research for this part?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The thing that was eye-opening to me, when I was studying this, is the extent to which people like Sherman Booth \u2013 if you go to Eastside, there\u2019s Booth Street, and he\u2019s one of the founders of the Republican party \u2013 how far they were willing to go to challenge the federal government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The government enacts the Fugitive Slave Act (in 1850), which allows people to come into Wisconsin and find slaves. Sherman Booth resists to the point where he gets put in jail! They actually come up with a Supreme Court case called <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fjc.gov\/history\/cases\/cases-that-shaped-the-federal-courts\/ableman-v-booth\">Abelman v. Booth<\/a>, which says that resisting a Supreme Court or federal ruling is illegal. They were putting their lives on the line for Black people, which I didn\u2019t know. Wow, what a powerful story here in Wisconsin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading size-h4\" id=\"h-sherman-booth-helped-joshua-glover-escape-correct\">Sherman Booth helped Joshua Glover escape, correct?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Joshua Glover gets here in 1852, I believe. He goes to Racine. For two years, he\u2019s a mill worker in Racine. And then his owner finds out that he\u2019s in Wisconsin. They come with the posse to get him. They take him to Milwaukee, and these folks in Racine line up with Sherman Booth, and they get on a ferry from Racine and go to Milwaukee and break this Glover out jail. Then they take him to Waukesha, and they get him out of the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading size-h4\" id=\"h-is-there-any-evidence-of-places-in-milwaukee-or-wisconsin-that-were-used-to-hide-people-crawl-spaces-hidden-rooms-that-sort-of-thing-like-we-learned-about-in-elementary-school\">Is there any evidence of places in Milwaukee or Wisconsin that were used to hide people? Crawl spaces, hidden rooms, that sort of thing like we learned about in elementary school?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>(The filmmaker) had a lead at this church, First Presbyterian in Racine. They have this basement that has these crawl spaces, and they\u2019re finding hats, shoes, materials that are indicating that they might be slave materials. They have a record saying that at least one slave has been sent to Canada. My sense is, once you start opening this door, other doors open. As a historian, we wonder, what else can we find? What other materials did people hide or cover up so they couldn\u2019t get caught?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading size-h4\" id=\"h-what-do-you-hope-that-people-understand-when-they-watch-the-documentary\">What do you hope that people understand when they watch the documentary?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>One, I\u2019m excited that we can tell Black history at a time like this, and I want people to value that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The second thing is, I want people to see that Black history is not just Black history. It\u2019s American history. It\u2019s tied to all of our stories. It\u2019s tied to all of our outcomes. At a time when history is polemical, I would love for us to cherish this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The third thing is, I think we need to go deeper into these stories, whether that\u2019s assigning stuff at the curriculum level or the elementary level, or even trying to find an investor to invest in this as a narrative film. We have to keep telling the story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>By Sarah Vickery, College of Letters &amp; Science<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Underground Railroad was a network of safehouses and secret routes that ferried fugitive slaves from the south to safety in the northern U.S. and Canada in the years leading up to America\u2019s Civil War. Some of those routes ran &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":785,"featured_media":31023,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","uwm_wg_additional_authors":[]},"categories":[1648,1961],"tags":[1853],"class_list":["post-31022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-focus","category-in-focus-2026","tag-march"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.3 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Letters &amp; Science<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/letters-science\/in-focus-2026\/take-a-ride-on-wisconsins-underground-railroad-with-uwm-faculty-as-your-guide\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Take a ride on Wisconsin&#039;s Underground Railroad, with 51ÁÔÆæ faculty as your guide\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Underground Railroad was a network of safehouses and secret routes that ferried fugitive slaves from the south to safety in the northern U.S. and Canada in the years leading up to America\u2019s Civil War. 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