Slave Chose Death for Her Child

Many people may already be familiar with the story of Margaret Garner and her actions when she tried to escape from slavery, but here is a Cincinnati Enquirer account of her story. It is a remarkable tale and shows how unhappy she was in slavery, even though some slaveholders (and non slave-holding whites) insisted that African-Americans were content in their role as slaves. That she would prefer her child to die rather than to become someone else's property is a strong statement of her feelings about slavery.

I admit that the fact this story took place in Northern Kentucky, not terribly far from where I live, and Cincinnati, where I work, does make it more fascinating to me than it ordinarily might, but this also is a story of national importance and interest in terms of a slave trying to take control of a situation and fighting against the "peculiar institution" even though many Kentuckians at the time felt slavery in this state was less harsh than in the deeper south.

courtesy freedomcenter.org

Her story became an opera that premiered in 2006.  For those who appreciate and understand opera much more than I do, here is a YouTube excerpt from the Opera Company of Philadelphia's production on February 24, 2006.

I mentioned this story previously when I found an advertisement in a local newspaper. The man who took out this advertisement, offering to trade land for negroes was probably the same man who owned Margaret and likely fathered her children.

Here is a map of Kentucky (an image I've used several times) with Boone County, where the Garners lived, circled. Its northern and western borders lie along the Ohio River, with Cincinnati just across the river on its northern side. This river served as an unofficial dividing line between free states and slave states, as well as a popular escape route for slaves. Being a border state with free states just across the river was one of the challenges Kentucky slaveholders faced.

For Sale or Exchange

I have found a couple of interesting articles/editorials in the April 6, 1861 edition of the Covington Journal and am working on turning those into blog entries for next week, but I found one classified ad unlike any I had seen before.

FOR SALE OR EXCHANGE
I wish to sell or exchange for negroes  SIX HUNDRED ACRES OF LAND, at Richwood Station, Boone county, Ky. This property is in a high state of cultivation, with good-improvements, four hundred acres cleared and the balance in timber; lays 2 1/2 miles from the Lexington Pike and 17 miles from Cincinnati.


Feb 23-lm   A.K. GAINES


Paris Flag, Frankfort Commonwealth, Maysville Eagle and Cincinnati Enquirer copy 4 times weekly and send bill to this office.

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I believe "A.K. Gaines" is the Archibald Kinkead Gaines mentioned in this story that involves the famous escape and capture of a slave named Margaret Garner, who then killed her young daughter instead of letting her being taken back into slavery. An opera was written about this story in the past few years

Here's another link to the Margaret Garner story, with a mention of Richwood Station.  Plenty of other links tell the story of Margaret Garner and her attempted escape. It is a case in which the Fugitive Slave Law did what it was supposed to, but with the unintended consequence of a mother killing her own child.

Additonally, this link shows Archibald's grave and includes some more information about him and his genealogy, while  another link  offers evidence that Mary Garner,  the child that Margaret Garner killed, was fathered by Archibald.

Yet, even after that much trouble with slaves in his recent past, Mr, Gaines apparently was interested in acquiring more human property even as his nation was on the brink of  Civil War, a war many believe came about primarily due to this "peculiar institution."