Who speaks for Margaret Garner? / Mark Reinhardt.

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.
Abstract 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.
General noteThis 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.
Bibliography noteIncludes bibliographical references and index.
LCCN 2010030721
ISBN9780816642588 (hc : alk. paper)
ISBN0816642583 (hc : alk. paper)
ISBN9780816642595 (pb : alk. paper)
ISBN0816642591 (pb : alk. paper)

Availability

Library Location Call Number Status Item Actions
Joyner General Stacks E450.G225 R44 2010 ✔ Available Place Hold