When retired sea captain Jonathan Walker settled in Fond du Lac County in 1851, his new neighbors were shocked by the scars on his right hand. Plainly burned into Walker 's palm were the large letters, "S.S."

In 1846, Walker had sailed to the Caribbean on business. While there, he tried to help fugitive slaves flee from Florida to the British West Indies, where slavery was illegal.

His ship was seized, however, and Walker was charged with theft of the slave owner 's property. He was sentenced to pay a large fine and be branded with the letters "S.S." for "slave stealer."

He recalled how the court officer "took from the fire the branding-iron, of a slight red heat, and applied it to the ball of my hand, and pressed it on firmly, for fifteen or twenty seconds. It made a spattering noise, like a handful of salt in the fire, as the skin seared and gave way to the hot iron. The pain was severe while the iron was on, and for some time afterwards."

Walker reportedly tolerated the pain stoically, knowing it was no worse than that which his escaping comrades and their families were likely to experience, or that suffered by many slaves from their owners every day.

But his treatment outraged white citizens across the country, and he became an effective abolitionist speaker.

After settling in Wisconsin, he liked to say the letters burned into his palm actually stood for "Slave Saver."

-- Wisconsin Historical Society www.wisconsinhistory.org

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