Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Norwegians predominate in southwestern Wisconsin.
African Americans
Some theories hold African Americans first arrived in Wisconsin in 1835, in the entourage
of Solomon Juneau, the founder of Milwaukee. But records from the early part of the 18th
century detail black trappers, guides, and explorers. In 1791 and 1792, in fact, black fur
traders established an encampment estimated to be near present-day Marinette. Though the
Michigan Territory was ostensibly free, slavery was not uncommon. Henry Dodge, Wis-
consin's first territorial governor, had slaves but freed them two years after leaving office.
Other slave owners were transplanted Southerners living in the new lead-mining district of
the southwest. Some early African Americans were demi-French African immigrants, who
settled near Prairie du Chien in the early 19th century. Wisconsin's first African American
settlement was Pleasant Spring, outside Lancaster in southwest Wisconsin; the State His-
torical Society's Old World Wisconsin in Eagle has an exhibit on it.
AfterpassageoftheFugitiveSlaveAct,whichallowedslavecatcherstocrossstatelines
in pursuit, many freed and escaped slaves flocked to the outer fringes of the country. Wis-
consin's opposition to the act was strident. One celebrated case involved Joshua Glover, an
escapedslavewhohadbeenlivingfreeandworkinginRacineforyears.Hewascaughtand
