Margaret Garner Was A House Slave

Margaret Garner, who was she? She was an enslaved African American woman in pre-Civil War America. Her nickname some people called her was called, “Peggy”. She was born into slavery on June 4, 1831, on the Maplewood plantation in Boone County, Kentucky. The Maplewood plantation she was born on was John Pollard Gaines. Her mother Priscilla and her mother’s husband Duke were also both slaves. Back then they were either classified as black or mulatto. Her mother and her husband were classified as black but Margaret was classified as mulatto. So they most likely thought she was either John Gaines daughter or one of his brother’s daughter. Margaret worked as a house slave for most of her life. She sometimes traveled with her masters and told

Some slave owners have sold their slaves to separate them, whether they were husbands, wives, or children. Like Toni Morrison wrote in the book “Beloved”, “Anybody Baby Suggs knew, let alone loved, who hadn’t run off or been hanged, got rented out, loaned out, brought up, brought back, stored up, mortgaged, won, stoled, or seized.” She had four children by 1856 who were also born into slavery. It was during the 1850s around the Underground Railroad time when it sent many slaves to freedom in Canada. Some of her cousins were free in Cincinnati, that gave the Garners a great opportunity to escape. So she and her family decided they were going to try and escape slavery. Before they left they stole a few things, this is what they stole, two horses, a sled, and Robert pocketed a six-shooter, it indicated that they will either live free or die trying. The first attempt was Sunday, January 27, 1856. There were 17 total slaves that decided to escape. The first stop was at Joseph Kite’s house in Cincinnati. The Kite’s were Margaret’s Uncle’s

Lucy wanted to defend her statement, so people stayed to hear what she had to say. She said, “The faded faces of the negro children tell too plainly to what degradation female slaves must submit. Rather than give her little daughter to that life she killed it. If in her deep maternal love she felt the impulse to send her child back to god, to save it from coming woe, who shall say she had no right to do so?” ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Garner ). Everyone in the room clapped for her and it seemed that there was hope that Margaret and her companions would be accused of