As we briefly touched on in class, Toni Morrison's Beloved brought to light a real-life tragedy that occurred in 1856: Margaret Garner's brutal murder of her two-year-old baby girl. I have to admit: I was shocked when I learned that Beloved was based on actual events. How could such a thing transpire?
Margaret Garner worked as a house slave in Kentucky for most of her life. In 1949, she married Robert Garner. They had four kids, but it's unclear if they were all by Robert. Three were suspected to be fathered by Archibald K. Gaines (the slave-owner). "The timing suggests they were each conceived after [Archibald's] wife had become pregnant and was sexually unavailable to him" (Source 2). Gross.
Due to the uptick in Underground Railroad activity, the newlyweds decided to attempt an escape.
In January of 1856, the six Garners took the leap. The first stage of the plan seemed like a victory, as they successfully reached Joseph Kite's Cincinnati house.
However, the Garners' master and Federal marshals "stormed Kite's home with warrants for the Garners" (Source 1). Just as Sethe made the decision to "save" her children from slavery, Margaret did the same. Three of Margaret's children ended up wounded but still alive, but one of them was not so lucky. "When the marshals found Margaret in a back room, she had slit her two-year-old daughter's throat with a butcher knife, killing her."
I would've been more depressed if the exact same thing hadn't happened in Beloved. Still, the whole story is quite disturbing.
I bet y'all are wondering how this real-life incident turned out. Well, the Garners were arrested and tried (for escaping). Overall, it was a long and complicated case (particularly in comparison to other fugitive slave cases). Issues included whether the Garners should be tried as persons or property. Margaret's lawyer wanted her to be charged with murder so that the trial would take place in a free state, as the lawyer thought the governor would pardon Margaret. Their lawyer argued for their freedom, but the Garners were ultimately returned to their former master. Apparently, the new Fugitive Slave Law (federal) took precedent over a (state) murder charge.
In another attempt to free the Garners, the lawyer finally talked officials into arresting Margaret on a murder charge. You might be thinking, what??? But, this strategy was an another attempt to free the Garners. Unfortunately, the Garners' master realized the plan and sent the Garners to his brother in Arkansas (where federal marshals couldn't arrest Margaret); Margaret remained a slave until her death.
Sources:
1. https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/margaret-garner-incident-1856/
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Garner
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5 comments:
Bennett's post: Woah, Jessie, great story. Such a tragic case like this reminds me of the many horrific slave stories I have heard before. One in particular comes to mind: Emmett Till. For those of you who don't remember, Emmett Till was a 14 year old boy who cat-called a white woman at a gas station. Two white men, the woman's husband and brother-in-law, overheard Emmett "flirting" and ended up abusing him and eventually lynching him. This story is brutal. I don't suggest it, but Mr. Adair showed us pictures of his corpse in class, and it was brutal. Anyways, I just wanted to remind you all the sheer number of terrible stories there are like this in America's history.
Thank you, Jessie, for digging deeper into this tragedy and shedding light on the woman who inspired Beloved. It’s absolutely appalling to learn the details of the horrors of slavery, and it’s beyond difficult to dive into the individual stories. We can’t analyze too much as there’s just no way of knowing how one would react to being faced with such trauma.
Wow, guys, these are heartbreaking stories. Think of all of the heartbreaking stories involving slavery that has never been told. I will tell you one. In the three hundred years that the slave trade existed, 12.5 MILLION slaves were transported from Africa to the Americas. However, only 10.7 million survived the trip to the Americas. It is astonishing that the conditions on the ships were so atrocious that approximately 15 percent of slaves died before the ships reached the Americas. (https://www.pbs.org/wnet/african-americans-many-rivers-to-cross/history/how-many-slaves-landed-in-the-us/) Click on the link if you want to see a picture of how the slaves were transported. It was simply inhumane.
I find the stories that relate to true stories and/or are based off of true story are fascinating. I think they’re very impactful on the audiences that they influence. The other night I was watching a show called The Resident (it’s a doctor show). The specific episode was based off the true story of a woman who died after child birth due to the neglect ion of her medical situations BECAUSE of her race. She was a black woman and was mistreated by her doctor with less care than his other patients. With an internal bleed from her bladder they were too late when they observed her catheter filled with blood. She ended up dying hours after her C section, leaving her husband as a single father of two. I think this story is significant to Beloved because of the influence of a true story as well as the significance of the racism.
This is such a good reminder how so much of what we read in fiction can not only be applied to reality, but is much to often based within it. Even the most fantastical, or even horrible, situations in stories more often than not reflect a much harsher reality. This reminds me of the banana massacre in "One Hundred Years of Solitude". When I first read it, I thought it was merely a made up events, but similarly was shocked when I learned in class that it was very much based on something that happened in real life.
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