Essay_on_Margaret_Garner

Regina G. Menica HIS 363; Essay Questions Monograph by Steven Weisenburger, Modern Madea North and South, Pre-Civil War Margaret Garner’s view of the White South’s view of itself is one of being above the call of Federal Laws; with regards to her trial. The Garner story has been, by far, the most famous run-away slave case in the history of pre-Civil War America and has been cause to many heated debates throughout both North and South. It all started in January 1856, when Margaret Garner, her husband, their children and other slaves ran away from their masters. They fled over the frozen Ohio River to hide in the house of a freed slave in Cincinnati. With Slave trackers on their trail, they ultimately surrounded the house and demanded their "property", ie: Margaret Garner, her four children and her husband. Grabbing a knife, Margaret Garner, then screamed that she would rather see her children die than to be returned to slavery. As the white men burst in, she slashed her 2 year-old daughter, Mary’s throat before she was captured. Abolitionists in the city had put forth argument in court that she, Margaret, be tried in Ohio for murder, but as a free woman. Her owners put forth argument that she was their property and should be returned to Kentucky, as a slave. The Southern, pro-slavery advocates were claiming to have the authority to over-ride the federal government, at the same time, Northern anti-slavery advocates were maintaining their mind-set on state sovereignty. The farming and agriculture of the South, prior to the Civil War, was based on a plantation system that which thrived on the foundation of cheap labor, slavery. So, it is in fairness to conclude that the economic fortunes of the Southern Plantation Owners relied upon artificial and cheap labor in the form of Slaves. Margaret became a hero amongst the people whom were opposed to slavery, but lost her case and was ordered to be returned back to her master, Archibald Gaines, who owned the Plantation in Boone County. Soon there-after, deputies returned the Garners to their former home state of Kentucky. Those news reporters of the day, whom had covered every detail of the trial, began to forget the re-enslaved Garners. Like so much of history and those that created it and inspired it, have gone forgotten and some never seem to have ever been mentioned in history at all. That is due to the sales of the sensationalism of a story’s end. Some would make claim to it being an issue of the famous status of the historical figure or event to be remembered and yet others even blame it on the “interpretive community” being too small or too fragmented to sustain the charge of the historical figure or event to be remembered. I think, in this case, that the reason that Margaret Garner’s story lost its place in historical records was due to the fact that she lost. Had Margaret Garner won, this would have indeed caused a ruckus of laws in every state of the time. And let’s not forget that the civil war ensued due to the differences and division of the North and the South on the issue of Slavery, Margaret Garner’s case made even more of a division amongst the North and South. Both sides, pro and anti-slavery supporters fled to the taking for the opportunity to impose their side’s views upon the event of the murder of Margaret’s daughter, Mary. The pro side made their claims that African Americans were savages and beasts and needed guidance and structure by way of their enslavement. In contrast, the anti-slavery movement, the abolitionists used the event to create a picture for the purpose of debating the issue of slavery and the degradation and abuse that goes with being a slave. That decent people were being reduced to acts of heinous, animal like behavior, all due to their enslavement. The caparisons that were displayed did show a consistency of a pattern. The anti-slavery movement did not depict the slaves or Margaret as evil or insane, but showed Margaret to be a loving and caring mother, like other slave mothers, but would go to such lengths in her actions to save her child(ren) from future enslavement. The presiding judge on the case was a John Pendery, whom had banned all Blacks from the trial due to fear of racial wars forming. The annals of the American Jurisprudence show that Margaret Garner was the only slave to testify on her own behalf in her own trial and also showed to have had the longest running trial of any slave of the time. Of the few remaining records, the indication is made that the testimonies of the trial were quite contradictory. Famed author and abolitionist, John Jolliffe was the legal representation for the Garners, using his extensive knowledge of the US Constitution along with the Bible to argue on behalf of Margaret’s freedom. But after all was said and done, Pendery ordered that the Garners be returned to their slave masters. Margaret Garner was never tried on murder charges for the death of little Mary. Their story would reach yet another turning point when Margaret is later shipped to the south, as a slave, and died of typhoid fever in 1858. Not much was ever to heard about Margaret Garner over the next century, until Toni Morrison wrote her Pulitzer Prize winning novel, Beloved (1987). In this novel, Morrison brings Margaret Garner to life again, for a moment, in modern minds to remember. SOURCES: Weisenburger, Steven. Modern Medea. Union Square West, New York: Hill and Wang, 1999. Mohs, PhD, Richard M. "How Human Memory Works." The Human Memory. http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/human-brain/human-memory.htm.