Margaret Garner (1834-1858) and her three mulatto children, were slaves bought by Archibald Gaines, from his brother John in 1850. In 1852, Archibald impregnated Margaret Garner, again. In 1853, Margaret Garner gave birth to a daughter, Mary.
In the 1850s in Kentucky, an enslaved and abused woman could not look to the law for protection. But the Kentucky slave owner greatly benefited from federal law. The Fugitive Slave Act, enforceable even in the free state of Ohio, required an officer of the Federal Court to see to the return of any captured escapee. Court procedures mandated an expedited hearing at which the slave herself was not permitted to testify, except by special permission. In many instances the only issue before the court was the question whether the human being standing in irons before the judge or commissioner had in fact been the property of the complainant, who had recaptured her and was seeking her return.
The slaveholder could rely upon a surprisingly aggressive enforcement mechanism lodged in the courthouse itself. Friendly commissioners could order federal marshals to act in place of the local sheriff. Even more controversial was the deputizing of citizens who would join in the hunt and expect to be paid a stipend for their services. These temporary deputies created a spectacle in and around Cincinnati in the 1850s. More than once, a handful and sometimes up to a dozen or more rowdy young White men on horseback appeared at full gallop on the streets and highways around Cincinnati. These were men from the river towns of northern Kentucky and they were on a mission. Transformed by an oath administered to them in federal court, the "nigger hunters" were now armed federal employees, empowered to surround or even break into an Ohio home, and wrestle to the ground and hog tie a screaming and resisting Black man, woman or child.
On a snowy night in January, 1856, seventeen escaped Kentucky slaves slipped across the iced up Ohio River at Covington. On the Ohio side, they split into two groups, so as to draw less attention. Nine slaves walked into Cincinnati and found daytime hiding places in the northern part of the city, from whence they were taken to Canada. The second group asked directions to the home of an elderly former slave, to which they were directed. In this group were Margaret Garner and her daughter Mary.
The house where Margaret Garner, daughter Mary, and other escaped slaves were hiding, was soon surrounded. Their location had been reported to pursuers from Kentucky. Those within barred the doors and windows and also fired weapons at any who tried to enter. At least one "deputy" was wounded by gunfire when he tried to come in through a window. With the barricaded house surrounded and no hope of escape, Margaret grabbed a butcher knife and cut deeply into her daughter's throat. While little Mary bled to death on the floor, Margaret and the rest were soon overpowered and taken to prison.
The State of Ohio wanted to try Margaret Garner for murder. Archibald Gaines wanted his property returned to him. After many maneuvers and motions during a sensational two-week trial, the federal anti-fugitive slave law prevailed: the court ordered Margaret Garner to be taken back across the Ohio River, to Archibald Gaines' farm.
Returned to Kentucky by court order, Margaret Garner was promptly shipped south to a Gaines plantation in Arkansas. On the journey, the boat in which they were confined was hit by another boat and was sunk in the Mississippi River. Although Margaret was saved, her infant son was drowned, a death which is said to have caused her to rejoice.
Margaret Garner is believed to have died of typhoid fever in Arkansas shortly before the start of the Civil War.
Efforts have been made to preserve Maplewood, the ancestral Gaines plantation where Margaret Garner was born in 1834. The gently sloping farm, as beautiful today as its ante-bellum tableau must have been, is 18 miles south of Cincinnati, a few miles west of Richwood, KY, on U.S. Route 25.
__________
This brief biography has been taken from Volume I of a book of family history entitled ALL OF THE ABOVE I, by Richard Baldwin Cook, a distant cousin of Archibald Gaines and his daughter, Mary, killed by her mother in 1856. For additional information, visit the contributor profile, #47181028.
In the 1850s in Kentucky, an enslaved and abused woman could not look to the law for protection. But the Kentucky slave owner greatly benefited from federal law. The Fugitive Slave Act, enforceable even in the free state of Ohio, required an officer of the Federal Court to see to the return of any captured escapee. Court procedures mandated an expedited hearing at which the slave herself was not permitted to testify, except by special permission. In many instances the only issue before the court was the question whether the human being standing in irons before the judge or commissioner had in fact been the property of the complainant, who had recaptured her and was seeking her return.
The slaveholder could rely upon a surprisingly aggressive enforcement mechanism lodged in the courthouse itself. Friendly commissioners could order federal marshals to act in place of the local sheriff. Even more controversial was the deputizing of citizens who would join in the hunt and expect to be paid a stipend for their services. These temporary deputies created a spectacle in and around Cincinnati in the 1850s. More than once, a handful and sometimes up to a dozen or more rowdy young White men on horseback appeared at full gallop on the streets and highways around Cincinnati. These were men from the river towns of northern Kentucky and they were on a mission. Transformed by an oath administered to them in federal court, the "nigger hunters" were now armed federal employees, empowered to surround or even break into an Ohio home, and wrestle to the ground and hog tie a screaming and resisting Black man, woman or child.
On a snowy night in January, 1856, seventeen escaped Kentucky slaves slipped across the iced up Ohio River at Covington. On the Ohio side, they split into two groups, so as to draw less attention. Nine slaves walked into Cincinnati and found daytime hiding places in the northern part of the city, from whence they were taken to Canada. The second group asked directions to the home of an elderly former slave, to which they were directed. In this group were Margaret Garner and her daughter Mary.
The house where Margaret Garner, daughter Mary, and other escaped slaves were hiding, was soon surrounded. Their location had been reported to pursuers from Kentucky. Those within barred the doors and windows and also fired weapons at any who tried to enter. At least one "deputy" was wounded by gunfire when he tried to come in through a window. With the barricaded house surrounded and no hope of escape, Margaret grabbed a butcher knife and cut deeply into her daughter's throat. While little Mary bled to death on the floor, Margaret and the rest were soon overpowered and taken to prison.
The State of Ohio wanted to try Margaret Garner for murder. Archibald Gaines wanted his property returned to him. After many maneuvers and motions during a sensational two-week trial, the federal anti-fugitive slave law prevailed: the court ordered Margaret Garner to be taken back across the Ohio River, to Archibald Gaines' farm.
Returned to Kentucky by court order, Margaret Garner was promptly shipped south to a Gaines plantation in Arkansas. On the journey, the boat in which they were confined was hit by another boat and was sunk in the Mississippi River. Although Margaret was saved, her infant son was drowned, a death which is said to have caused her to rejoice.
Margaret Garner is believed to have died of typhoid fever in Arkansas shortly before the start of the Civil War.
Efforts have been made to preserve Maplewood, the ancestral Gaines plantation where Margaret Garner was born in 1834. The gently sloping farm, as beautiful today as its ante-bellum tableau must have been, is 18 miles south of Cincinnati, a few miles west of Richwood, KY, on U.S. Route 25.
__________
This brief biography has been taken from Volume I of a book of family history entitled ALL OF THE ABOVE I, by Richard Baldwin Cook, a distant cousin of Archibald Gaines and his daughter, Mary, killed by her mother in 1856. For additional information, visit the contributor profile, #47181028.
Margaret Garner (1834-1858) and her three mulatto children, were slaves bought by Archibald Gaines, from his brother John in 1850. In 1852, Archibald impregnated Margaret Garner, again. In 1853, Margaret Garner gave birth to a daughter, Mary.
In the 1850s in Kentucky, an enslaved and abused woman could not look to the law for protection. But the Kentucky slave owner greatly benefited from federal law. The Fugitive Slave Act, enforceable even in the free state of Ohio, required an officer of the Federal Court to see to the return of any captured escapee. Court procedures mandated an expedited hearing at which the slave herself was not permitted to testify, except by special permission. In many instances the only issue before the court was the question whether the human being standing in irons before the judge or commissioner had in fact been the property of the complainant, who had recaptured her and was seeking her return.
The slaveholder could rely upon a surprisingly aggressive enforcement mechanism lodged in the courthouse itself. Friendly commissioners could order federal marshals to act in place of the local sheriff. Even more controversial was the deputizing of citizens who would join in the hunt and expect to be paid a stipend for their services. These temporary deputies created a spectacle in and around Cincinnati in the 1850s. More than once, a handful and sometimes up to a dozen or more rowdy young White men on horseback appeared at full gallop on the streets and highways around Cincinnati. These were men from the river towns of northern Kentucky and they were on a mission. Transformed by an oath administered to them in federal court, the "nigger hunters" were now armed federal employees, empowered to surround or even break into an Ohio home, and wrestle to the ground and hog tie a screaming and resisting Black man, woman or child.
On a snowy night in January, 1856, seventeen escaped Kentucky slaves slipped across the iced up Ohio River at Covington. On the Ohio side, they split into two groups, so as to draw less attention. Nine slaves walked into Cincinnati and found daytime hiding places in the northern part of the city, from whence they were taken to Canada. The second group asked directions to the home of an elderly former slave, to which they were directed. In this group were Margaret Garner and her daughter Mary.
The house where Margaret Garner, daughter Mary, and other escaped slaves were hiding, was soon surrounded. Their location had been reported to pursuers from Kentucky. Those within barred the doors and windows and also fired weapons at any who tried to enter. At least one "deputy" was wounded by gunfire when he tried to come in through a window. With the barricaded house surrounded and no hope of escape, Margaret grabbed a butcher knife and cut deeply into her daughter's throat. While little Mary bled to death on the floor, Margaret and the rest were soon overpowered and taken to prison.
The State of Ohio wanted to try Margaret Garner for murder. Archibald Gaines wanted his property returned to him. After many maneuvers and motions during a sensational two-week trial, the federal anti-fugitive slave law prevailed: the court ordered Margaret Garner to be taken back across the Ohio River, to Archibald Gaines' farm.
Returned to Kentucky by court order, Margaret Garner was promptly shipped south to a Gaines plantation in Arkansas. On the journey, the boat in which they were confined was hit by another boat and was sunk in the Mississippi River. Although Margaret was saved, her infant son was drowned, a death which is said to have caused her to rejoice.
Margaret Garner is believed to have died of typhoid fever in Arkansas shortly before the start of the Civil War.
Efforts have been made to preserve Maplewood, the ancestral Gaines plantation where Margaret Garner was born in 1834. The gently sloping farm, as beautiful today as its ante-bellum tableau must have been, is 18 miles south of Cincinnati, a few miles west of Richwood, KY, on U.S. Route 25.
__________
This brief biography has been taken from Volume I of a book of family history entitled ALL OF THE ABOVE I, by Richard Baldwin Cook, a distant cousin of Archibald Gaines and his daughter, Mary, killed by her mother in 1856. For additional information, visit the contributor profile, #47181028.
In the 1850s in Kentucky, an enslaved and abused woman could not look to the law for protection. But the Kentucky slave owner greatly benefited from federal law. The Fugitive Slave Act, enforceable even in the free state of Ohio, required an officer of the Federal Court to see to the return of any captured escapee. Court procedures mandated an expedited hearing at which the slave herself was not permitted to testify, except by special permission. In many instances the only issue before the court was the question whether the human being standing in irons before the judge or commissioner had in fact been the property of the complainant, who had recaptured her and was seeking her return.
The slaveholder could rely upon a surprisingly aggressive enforcement mechanism lodged in the courthouse itself. Friendly commissioners could order federal marshals to act in place of the local sheriff. Even more controversial was the deputizing of citizens who would join in the hunt and expect to be paid a stipend for their services. These temporary deputies created a spectacle in and around Cincinnati in the 1850s. More than once, a handful and sometimes up to a dozen or more rowdy young White men on horseback appeared at full gallop on the streets and highways around Cincinnati. These were men from the river towns of northern Kentucky and they were on a mission. Transformed by an oath administered to them in federal court, the "nigger hunters" were now armed federal employees, empowered to surround or even break into an Ohio home, and wrestle to the ground and hog tie a screaming and resisting Black man, woman or child.
On a snowy night in January, 1856, seventeen escaped Kentucky slaves slipped across the iced up Ohio River at Covington. On the Ohio side, they split into two groups, so as to draw less attention. Nine slaves walked into Cincinnati and found daytime hiding places in the northern part of the city, from whence they were taken to Canada. The second group asked directions to the home of an elderly former slave, to which they were directed. In this group were Margaret Garner and her daughter Mary.
The house where Margaret Garner, daughter Mary, and other escaped slaves were hiding, was soon surrounded. Their location had been reported to pursuers from Kentucky. Those within barred the doors and windows and also fired weapons at any who tried to enter. At least one "deputy" was wounded by gunfire when he tried to come in through a window. With the barricaded house surrounded and no hope of escape, Margaret grabbed a butcher knife and cut deeply into her daughter's throat. While little Mary bled to death on the floor, Margaret and the rest were soon overpowered and taken to prison.
The State of Ohio wanted to try Margaret Garner for murder. Archibald Gaines wanted his property returned to him. After many maneuvers and motions during a sensational two-week trial, the federal anti-fugitive slave law prevailed: the court ordered Margaret Garner to be taken back across the Ohio River, to Archibald Gaines' farm.
Returned to Kentucky by court order, Margaret Garner was promptly shipped south to a Gaines plantation in Arkansas. On the journey, the boat in which they were confined was hit by another boat and was sunk in the Mississippi River. Although Margaret was saved, her infant son was drowned, a death which is said to have caused her to rejoice.
Margaret Garner is believed to have died of typhoid fever in Arkansas shortly before the start of the Civil War.
Efforts have been made to preserve Maplewood, the ancestral Gaines plantation where Margaret Garner was born in 1834. The gently sloping farm, as beautiful today as its ante-bellum tableau must have been, is 18 miles south of Cincinnati, a few miles west of Richwood, KY, on U.S. Route 25.
__________
This brief biography has been taken from Volume I of a book of family history entitled ALL OF THE ABOVE I, by Richard Baldwin Cook, a distant cousin of Archibald Gaines and his daughter, Mary, killed by her mother in 1856. For additional information, visit the contributor profile, #47181028.
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