Name: Black on the Wisconsin Frontier, 1725-1868
Start: 2026-05-04T18:30:00-05:00
End: 2026-05-04T20:00:00-05:00
Location: Waupaca Area Public Library

Black on the Wisconsin Frontier, 1725-1868

Christy Pujara-Clark, PhD, is Chair and Professor in the Department of African at UW-Madison. Free and enslaved Black people lived, labored, and raised families on the Wisconsin frontier; they called the towns and cities of Prairie du Chien, Racine, Green Bay, Lancaster, Milwaukee, and Menominee home. Yet their stories remain largely untold. Black people resisted bondage and political marginalization, creating places and spaces where they could be free and thrive. Black Americans were a tiny minority in Wisconsin territory and later the state; nevertheless, the practice of race-based slavery and anxieties about Black migrants led white Wisconsinites to dispute abolition and the rights of Black residents.