MARGARET GARNER
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"SHE WOULD KILL HERSELF...BEFORE SHE WOULD RETURN TO BONDAGE"
Margaret Garner, a fugitive slave from Kentucky, killed one of her children rather than
permit her to be returned to slavery. She
drowned in a shipwreck as she was being brought back to slavery.
Perhaps no case that came under my notice, while engaged in aiding fugitive slaves,
attracted more attention and aroused deeper interest and sympathy than the case of
Margaret Garner, the slave mother who killed her child rather than see it taken back to
slavery. This happened in the latter part of January, 1856. The Ohio River was frozen over
at the time, and the opportunity thus offered for escaping to a free State was embraced by
a number of slaves living in Kentucky, several miles back from the river. A party of
seventeen, belonging to different masters in the same neighborhood, made arrangements to
escape together. There was snow on the ground and the roads were smooth, so the plan of
going to the river on a sled naturally suggested itself. The time fixed for their flight
was Sabbath night, and having managed to get a large sled and two good horses, belonging
to one of their masters, the party of seventeen crowded into the sled and started on their
hazardous journey in the latter part of the night. They drove the horses at full speed,
and at daylight reached the River below Covington, opposite Wester Row. They left the sled
and horses here, and as quickly as possible crossed the river on foot. It was now broad
daylight, and people were beginning to pass about the streets and the fugitives divided
their company that they might not attract so much notice.
An old slave named Simon and his wife Mary, together with their son Robert and his wife
Margaret Garner and four children,
made their way to the house of a colored man named Kite, who had formerly lived in their
neighborhood and had been purchased from slavery by his father, Joe Kite. They had to make
several inquiries in order to find Kite's house, which was below Mill Creek, in the lower
part of the city. This afterward led to their discovery; they had been seen by a number of
persons on their way to Kite's, and were easily traced by pursuers. The other nine
fugitives were more fortunate. They made their way up town and found friends who conducted
them to safe hiding- places, where they remained until night. They were put on the
Underground Railroad, and went safely through to Canada....
In a few minutes...[Kite's] house was surrounded by pursuers- - the masters of the
fugitives, with officers and a posse of men.
The door and windows were barred, and those inside refused to give admittance. The
fugitives were determined to fight, and to
die, rather than to be taken back to slavery. Margaret, the mother of the four children,
declared that she would kill herself and her children before she would return to bondage.
The slave men were armed and fought bravely. The window was first battered down with a
stick of wood, and one of the deputy marshals attempted to enter, but a pistol shot from
within made a flesh wound on his arm and caused him to abandon the attempt. The pursuers
then battered down the door with some timber and rushed in. The husband of Margaret fired
several shots, and wounded one of the officers, but was soon overpowered and dragged out
of the house. At this moment, Margaret Garner, seeing that their hopes of freedom were in
vain, seized a butcher knife that lay on the table, and with one stroke cut the throat of
her little daughter, whom she probably loved the best. She then attempted to take the life
of the other children and to kill herself, but she was overpowered and hampered before she
could complete her desperate work. The whole party was then arrested and lodged in jail.
The trial lasted two weeks, drawing crowds to the courtroom every day....The counsel for
the defense brought witnesses to prove that the fugitives had been permitted to visit the
city at various times previously. It was claimed that Margaret Garner had been brought
here by her owners a number of years before, to act as nurse girl, and according to the
law which liberated slaves who were brought into free States by the consent of their
masters, she had been free from that time, and her children, all of whom had been born
since then- - following the condition of the mother- - were likewise free.
The Commissioner decided that a voluntary return to slavery, after a visit to a free
State, re- attached the conditions of slavery,
and that the fugitives were legally slaves at the time of their escape....
But in spite of touching appeals, of eloquent pleadings, the Commissioner remanded the
fugitives back to slavery. He said that it
was not a question of feeling to be decided by the chance current of his sympathies; the
law of Kentucky and the United States
made it a question of property.
Source: Levi Coffin, Reminiscences (Cincinnati, 1876).