Margaret Garner's Blood-Curdling Decision
The terrible deed is discovered.
A Mother's Choice
A runaway slave and her family were captured by slave hunters to be returned to their owner in Kentucky.
Faced with the prospect of surrendering her children to a life of perpetual, enslaved toil, Margaret Garner tried to kill herself and her offspring.
Context
In July 2023, NBC News reported that “Florida’s public schools will now teach students that some Black people benefited from slavery because it taught them useful skills, part of new African American history standards approved Wednesday that were blasted by a state teachers' union as a 'step backward'.”
The new curriculum has the support of Florida Governor and one-time candidate for President of the United States, Ron DeSantis.
The Garner Family in Slavery
They lived in Boone County, northern Kentucky. Margaret Garner was born into slavery in 1834 as the property of the Gaines family. She was of mixed race (a mulatto) and may well have been the daughter of her owner, John Gaines, a Whig Member of the House of Representatives. James Garner was a slave on a nearby plantation owned by James Marshall.
In 1849, Margaret and Robert married, although it was not a union that was recognized by the state. The couple were not allowed to live together and their children, of which there were four, could be taken away and sold.
Three of Margaret's children were mulatto leaving the strong suggestion that Gaines genes were involved during an impregnation that was likely not consensual.
Writing for BBC History Extra, Rosalind Crone notes that “Margaret had been forced to raise them (her children) as a single parent, balancing motherhood with the demands of the Gaines family, who insisted on virtually round-the-clock service.”
The Garner Family Escapes
Margaret Garner and her husband, Robert, failed to grasp the value of the job skills that slavery gave them.
Margaret had learned how to change, wash, and feed the Gaines children as well as picking up knowledge of how to sexually serve her master. Robert's precious knowledge extended to planting, weeding, and harvesting crops; these would come in handy on the farm he would never own.
The couple lived close to the Ohio River, the dividing line between slave-owning states and freedom. Robert stole his owner's sleigh, a couple of horses, and a pistol.
Putting Ron DeSantis's enticing world of slavery behind them, as delineated by the Florida public school system, Robert and Margaret took their children and his parents across the frozen river.
It was January 1856, and the family made their way to Cincinnati to hook up with the Underground Railroad, an escape route to Canada for slaves.
The Garners were staying in the home of Joseph Kite but, within hours, slave catchers and federal marshals surrounded the house.
Recommended
Escape routes for runaway slaves.
Margaret Garner's Infanticide
With capture inevitable, Margaret is said to have declared, “Before my children shall be taken back to Kentucky, I will kill every one of them.” Robert seems to have had similar feelings as he emptied the six-gun at those seeking to capture him, wounding one of the deputies.
When the slave catchers burst into the house they found a horrific scene. Two-year-old Mary was dead, Margaret having almost decapitating the infant with a butcher's knife. The other children were wounded, having apparently resisted their mother's attempt to kill them.
The posse outnumbered the Garners and subdued them. They were charged under the federal Fugitive Slave Law, which led to a much-watched trial.
The first person caught under the Fugitive Slave Law was James Hamlet, depicted here. The banner on the right reads “A day, an hour, of virtuous liberty is worth an age of servitude.”
Property or Persons
Cincinnati, where the trials of Margaret and Robert Garner took place was deeply divided over slavery. Squabbles broke out and came to the brink of gun battles over whether state or federal law should be applied to the case. Under federal law, the Garners would be tried as persons, under state law they were considered property.
Normally, a runaway slave proceeding would be dealt with in under an hour; the trial of the Garners lasted two weeks as motions were filed, testimony given, and statements made.
The trial was further complicated when abolitionist Lucy Stone appeared for the defence and brought up a human rights argument involving the sexual abuse of Margaret at the hands of John Gaines and his son Archibald. She told the court:
“The faded faces of the Negro children tell too plainly to what degradation the female slaves submit. Rather than give her daughter to that life, she killed it. If in her deep maternal love she felt the impulse to send her child back to God, to save it from coming woe, who shall say she had no right not to do so?”
The passion of the defence failed to sway the presiding judge, John Pendery, who ordered the Garners be returned to their owners.
Margaret was not immediately charged with murder but when she was, officials were unable to find her. She and Robert were moved around a lot and sold to various owners in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Tennessee.
During one of the transfers, the Garner family was aboard the riverboat Henry Lewis on the Ohio River. At night, the Henry Lewis collided with another vessel and began to sink.
Accounts vary but, in general, they say that Margaret jumped into the river, having first thrown her daughter Priscilla into the water. Margaret was rescued and is said to “have displayed frantic joy when told that her child was drowned.”
It is at this point that the Garners vanish from the historical record although it's believed Margaret died of typhoid in 1858. She was only 24 years old.
A reporter tracked Robert Garner down in 1870. He wrote that Garner told him that shortly before Margaret died she pleaded with him to “never marry again in slavery, but to live in hope of freedom.”
Enslaved children who don't look very happy about the prospect of learning "valuable skills."
Bonus Factoids
- In 1882, Harvard historian James Schouler wrote about “the innate patience, docility, and child-like simplicity of the negro,” thereby launching the myth that slaves quietly accepted their oppression. In his 1983 book American Negro Slave Revolts, historian Herbert Aptheker demolishes this myth by documenting 250 slave revolts.
- The International Labour Organization reports that “The 2021 Global Estimates indicate there are 50 million people in situations of modern slavery on any given day, either forced to work against their will or in a marriage that they were forced into. This number translates to nearly one of every 150 people in the world.” The worst offending countries are China, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Eritrea, India, Mauritania, and Turkey.
- According to the anti-slavery group, Walk Free Foundation, there are, at any given time, 400,000 people in the United States living in slavery defined as “forced and state-imposed labor, sexual servitude, and forced marriage.”
- Toni Robinson drew on the story of Margaret Garner for her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Beloved.
Related Article
- America’s Slave Patrollers
Many enslaved people, distraught at the appalling conditions of their servitude, tried to run away; a cruel band of men was recruited to capture them and deter future absconders.
Sources
- “New Florida Standards Teach Students that Some Black People Benefited from Slavery Because it Taught Useful Skills.” Antonio Planas, NBC News, July 20, 2023.
- “A Historical Margaret Garner.” Steven Weisenburger, motopera.org, 1998.
- “Lady Killers: What 5 Murder Cases Can Reveal About the Lives of Women in the 19th and 20th Centuries.” Rosalind Crone, BBC History Extra, March 22, 2023.
- “Margaret Garner Incident (1856).” Casey Nichols, blackpast.org, December 5, 2007.
- “Margaret Garner's Story Has Resonated for the Past 164 Years. It's One She Never Got to Tell.” Sarah Haselhorst, Cincinnati Enquirer, August 3, 2020.
- “Global Estimates of Modern Slavery Forced Labour and Forced Marriage.” International Labour Organization, September 2022.
- “Understanding the Scale of Modern Slavery.” walkfree.org, 2018.
- “Over 400,000 People Living in 'Modern Slavery' in US, Report Finds.” Edward Helmore, The Guardian, July 19, 2018.
This content is accurate and true to the best of the author’s knowledge and is not meant to substitute for formal and individualized advice from a qualified professional.
© 2023 Rupert Taylor
