| Description |
xii, 317 pages ; 24 cm |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Note |
This book's "central purpose is to put many of the most important primary source documents into the hands of today's readers. The documents gathered here include the first news reports on the Garners' escape and capture, detailed accounts of the court proceedings, the last recorded interview with Margaret Garner's husband Robert, and...the...recollections of a descendant of Archibald K. Gaines, the man who claimed Margaret and her children as his property"--P. x. Also includes letters from the legal struggle's key participants; editorial commentaries; excerpts from debates in the Ohio legislature, selections from notable speeches, sermons, and interviews; and literary renderings of related events and their key cultural sources. |
| Contents |
Introduction : an extraordinary case? -- Documents -- Escape and capture -- In the Commissioner's Court -- Return -- Requisition? -- Whose sovereignty? : courts in conflict -- The Ohio legislature responds : debate on the floor -- The battle in the press : editorials on the murder -- The battle in the press : editorials on the trial, return, and requisition -- Silence in the deep South : the case of Charleston, South Carolina -- Speeches, sermons, and "interviews" -- Final developments -- Literary sources, literary echoes -- Appendix: Text of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 -- Chronology of key events, 1856-71. |
| Summary |
In January 1856, Margaret Garner and her family were at the center of one of the most dramatic and intensely contested fugitive slave cases in the nation's history. Just hours after escaping slavery in Kentucky and taking refuge in a home in Cincinnati, the Garners were cornered by authorities. As the captors sought to enter the house, Garner killed her two-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Mary. Reports suggested that she had tried to kill her three other children, too. These events were instantly sensationalized in the media, stimulating heated debates throughout the country: What did it mean that a mother would rather kill her children than see them returned to a life in slavery? What should happen to Margaret Garner? The conflicting answers to these questions exposed the fault lines over slavery within a nation already drifting toward civil war. |
| Subject |
Garner, Margaret, 1834-1858 -- Trials, litigation, etc.
|
|
Garner, Margaret, 1834-1858. |
|
Garner, Margaret, 1834-1858 -- Trials, litigation, etc. -- Sources.
|
| Genre/Form |
Sources.
|
| Subject |
Garner, Margaret, 1834-1858 -- Public opinion.
|
|
Public opinion. |
|
Garner, Margaret, 1834-1858 -- Public opinion -- Sources.
|
|
Trials (Infanticide) -- Ohio -- Cincinnati.
|
|
Trials (Infanticide) |
|
Ohio -- Cincinnati. |
|
Trials (Infanticide) -- Ohio -- Cincinnati -- Sources.
|
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Infanticide -- Ohio -- Cincinnati -- History -- 19th century.
|
|
Infanticide. |
|
History. |
| Chronological Term |
19th century |
| Subject |
Infanticide -- Ohio -- Cincinnati -- History -- 19th century -- Sources.
|
|
Fugitive slaves -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- Ohio -- Cincinnati.
|
|
Fugitive slaves -- Legal status, laws, etc. |
|
Fugitive slaves. |
|
Fugitive slaves -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- Ohio -- Cincinnati -- Sources.
|
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Fugitive slaves -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- United States.
|
|
United States. |
|
Fugitive slaves -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- United States -- Sources.
|
| ISBN |
9780816642588 hardcover alkaline paper |
|
0816642583 hardcover alkaline paper |
|
9780816642595 paperback alkaline paper |
|
0816642591 paperback alkaline paper |
|
