(soft dramatic music) - [Speaker 1] Slavery was incredibly harsh.

The rise of cotton and the cotton gin especially made slavery incredibly profitable.

- [Speaker 2] With the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, that changed the entire dynamic of the debate over slavery because it would allow for enforcement by US Marshals.

- If a runway made their way to any state or any location, any citizen had the right to reclaim that person or call the authorities to make sure that that person's returned.

- After the Fugitive Slave Act, the worst parts of humanity show up and people are running around the country as bounty hunters.

No Black American was safe.

This is something that is a really ugly part of our history.

This was scary stuff that prevented people from seeing Black Americans as humans.

- You had a number of immigrants in Wisconsin who had come here from other places.

Now they could see the runaway slave arrested for having done no wrong except to seek freedom.

The same thing they had done by crossing the Atlantic Ocean.

In the wake of the Fugitive Slave Act, a great movement opposed to slavery existed now because now they could see it.

- [Speaker 1] Yeah, and so people in Wisconsin stand up, fight back, and actually rebel - Other states snuck and did it, but they kept quiet about it.

Wisconsin does it, but Wisconsin makes it a national story.

- Back in the back corner is where they found the hat, an old Bible.

Slaves come here 'cause we're close to Canada and we have the waterway, Lake Michigan that allows us to get there.

- [Speaker 4] And this is a very emotional space for a lot of people.

You're literally walking in the footsteps of history.

- [Speaker 1] The underground railroad, it's a really informal network made up of conductors, safe houses, and passengers.

It's led by both Black Americans and white Americans.

This is really an underground resistance that's inspiring Black Americans to run away.

- My story, our story, is the American story.

(soft dramatic music) (insects chirping)