Margaret Garner and seven
others, at Cincinnati, Ohio, January, 1856.
Of this recent and peculiarly painful case
we give a somewhat detailed account, mainly
taken from the Cincinnati papers of the day.
About ten o'clock on Sunday, 27th January,
1856, a party of eight slaves—two men, two
women, and four children—belonging to
Archibald K. Gaines and John Marshall, of
Richwood Station, Boone County, Kentucky,
about sixteen miles from Covington, escaped
from their owners. Three of the party are
father, mother, and son, whose names are
Simon, Mary, and Simon, Jr.; the others are
Margaret, wife of Simon, Jr., and her four
children. The three first are the property
of Marshall, and the others of Gaines.
They took a sleigh and two horses belonging
to Mr. Marshall, and drove to the river
bank, opposite Cincinnati, and crossed over
to the city on the ice. They were missed a
few hours after their flight, and Mr.
Gaines, springing on a horse, followed in
pursuit. On reaching the river shore, he
learned that a resident had found the horses
standing in the road. He then crossed over
to the City, and after a few hours diligent
inquiry, he learned that his slaves were in
a house about a quarter of a mile below the
Mill Creek Bridge, on the river road,
occupied by a colored man named Kite.
| He proceeded to the office of
United States Commissioner John L.
Pendery, and procuring the necessary
warrants, with United States Deputy
Marshal Ellis, and a large body of
assistants, went on Monday to the
place where his fugitives were
concealed. Arriving at the premises,
word was sent to the fugitives to
surrender. A firm and decided
negative was the response. The
officers, backed by a large crowd,
then made a descent. Breaking open
the doors, they were assailed by the
negroes with cudgels and pistols.
Several shots were fired, but only
one took effect, so far as we could
ascertain. A bullet struck a man
named John Patterson, one of the
Marshal's deputies; tearing off a
finger of his right hand, and
dislocating several of his teeth. No
other of the officers were injured,
the negroes being rendered powerless
before they could reload their
weapons. On looking around, horrible was the sight which met the officers' eyes. In one corner of the room was a nearly white child, bleeding to death. Her throat was cut from ear to ear, and the blood was spouting out profusely, showing that the deed was but recently committed. Scarcely was this fact noticed, when a scream issuing from an adjoining room drew their attention thither. A glance into the apartment revealed a negro woman holding in her hand a knife literally dripping with gore, over the heads of two little negro children, who were crouched to the floor, and uttering the cries whose agonized peals had first startled them. Quickly the knife was wrested from the hand of the excited woman, and a more close investigation instituted as to the condition, of the infants. They were discovered to be cut across the head and shoulders, but not very seriously injured, although the blood trickled down their backs and upon their clothes. |
The woman avowed herself the
mother of the children, and said that she
had killed one and would like to kill the
three others, rather than see them again
reduced to slavery! By this time the crowd
about the premises had become prodigious,
and it was with no inconsiderable difficulty
that the negroes were secured in carriages,
and brought to the United States District
Court-rooms, on Fourth Street. The populace
followed the vehicle closely, but evinced no
active desire to effect a rescue. Rumors of
the story soon circulated all over the city.
Nor were they exaggerated, as is usually the
case. For once, reality surpassed the
wildest thought of fiction.
The slaves, on reaching the marshal's
office, seated themselves around the stove
with dejected countenances, and preserved a
moody silence, answering all questions
propounded to them in monosyllables, or
refusing to answer at all. Simon is
apparently about fifty-five years of age,
and Mary about fifty. The son of Mr.
Marshall, who is here, in order, if
possible, to recover the property of his
father, says that they have always been
faithful servants, and have frequently been
on this side of the river. Simon, Jr., is a
young man, about twenty-two years old, of a
very lithe and active form, and rather a
mild and pleasant countenance. Margaret is a
dark mulatto, twenty-three years of age; her
countenance is far from being vicious, and
her senses, yesterday, appeared partially
stultified from the exciting trials she had
endured. After remaining about two hours at
the marshal's office, Commissioner Pendery
announced that the slaves would be removed
to the custody of the United States Marshal
until nine o'clock Tuesday morning, when the
case would come up for examination.
The slaves were then taken down stairs to
the street-door, when a wild and exciting
scene presented itself; the sidewalks and
the middle of the street were thronged with
people, and a couple of coaches were at the
door in order to convey the captives to the
station-house. The slaves were guarded by a
strong posse of officers, and as they made
their appearance on the street, it was
evident that there was a strong sympathy in
their favor. When they were led to the
carriage-doors, there were loud cries of
"Drive on!" "Don't take them!" The coachmen,
either from alarm or from a sympathetic
feeling, put the whip to their horses, and
drove rapidly off, leaving the officers with
their fugitives on the sidewalk. They
started on foot with their charge to the
Hammond Street station-house, where they
secured their prisoners for the night.
The slaves claimed that they had been on
this side of the river frequently, by
consent of their masters.
About three o'clock application was made to
Judge Burgoyne for a writ of habeas corpus,
to bring the slaves before him. This was put
in the hands of Deputy Sheriff Buckingham to
serve, who, accompanied by several
assistants, proceeded to Hammond Street
station-house, where the slaves were lodged.
Mr. Bennett, Deputy United States Marshal,
was unwilling to give them up, and a long
time was spent parleying between the marshal
and the sheriff's officers. The sheriff
being determined that the writ should be
executed, Mr. Bennett went out to take
counsel with his friends. Finally, through
the advice of Mayor Faran, Mr. Bennett
agreed to lodge the slaves in the jail,
ready to be taken out at the order of Judge
Burgoyne. Mr. Buckingham obtained the
complete control of the slaves.
On the morning of the 29th, Sheriff
Brashears, being advised by lawyers that
Judge Burgoyne had no right to issue his
writ for the slaves, and remembering Judge
McLean's decision in the Rosetta case, made
a return on the writ of habeas corpus, that
the slaves were in the custody of the United
States Marshal, and, therefore, without his
jurisdiction. This returned the slaves to
the custody of the Marshal. By agreement,
the parties permitted the slaves to remain
in the county jail during that day, with the
understanding that their examination should
commence the next morning, before
Commissioner Pendery. An inquest had been
held on the body of the child which was
killed, and a verdict was found by the jury
charging the death of the child upon the
mother, who it was said would be held under
the laws of Ohio to answer the charge of
murder. An examination took place on
Wednesday, before the United States
Commissioner. Time was allowed their counsel
to obtain evidence to show that they had
been brought into the State at former times
by their masters. A meeting of citizens was
held on Thursday evening, to express
sympathy with the alleged fugitives.
| The Cincinnati Commercial of
January 30, said:—The mother is of
an interesting appearance, a mulatto
of considerable intelligence of
manner, and with a good address. In
reply to a gentleman who yesterday
complimented her upon the looks of
her little boy, she said, "You
should have seen my little girl
that—that—[she did not like to say,
was killed]—that died, that was the
bird." The Cincinnati Gazette, of January 30, said:—We learn that the mother of the dead child acknowledges that she had killed it, and that her determination was to have killed all the children, and then destroy herself, rather than return to slavery. She and the others complain of cruel treatment on the part of their master, and allege that as the cause of their attempted escape. |
The coroner's jury, after
examining the citizens present at the time
of the arrest, went to the jail last
evening, and examined the grandmother of the
child—one of the slaves. She testified that
the mother, when she saw they would be
captured, caught a butcher knife and ran to
the children, saying she would kill them
rather than to have them return to slavery,
and cut the throat of the child, calling on
the grandmother to help her kill them. The
grandmother said she would not do it, and
hid under a bed.
The jury gave a verdict as follows:—That
said child was killed by its mother,
Margaret Garner, with a butcher knife, with
which she cut its throat.
Two of the jurors also find that the two men
arrested as fugitives were accessories to
the murder.
"The murdered child was almost white, and
was a little girl of rare beauty."
The examination of witnesses was continued
until Monday, February 4, when the
commissioner listened to the arguments of
counsel until February 7th. Messrs. Jolliffe
and Gitchell appeared for the fugitives, and
Colonel Chambers, of Cincinnati, and Mr.
Finnell, of Covington, Kentucky, for the
claimants of the slaves. A great number of
assistants, (amounting very nearly to five
hundred,) were employed by the United States
Marshal, H.H. Robinson, from the first,
making the expenses to the United States
Government very large; for their
twenty-eight days' service alone, at $2.00
per day, amounting to over $22,000. February
8th, the case was closed, so far as related
to the three slaves of Mr. Marshall, but the
decision was postponed. The examination in
regard to Margaret and her children was
farther continued. It was publicly stated
that Commissioner Pendery had declared that
he "would not send the woman back into
slavery while a charge or indictment for
murder lay against her." Colonel Chambers,
counsel for the slave-claimants, in his
argument, "read long extracts from a
pamphlet entitled, 'A Northern Presbyter's
Second Letter to Ministers of the Gospel of
all Denominations, on Slavery, by Nathan
Lord, of Dartmouth College,' approving and
recommending Dr. Lord's views." Colonel
Chambers having alluded, in his remarks, to
Mrs. Lucy Stone Blackwell, and said that she
had sought to give a knife to Margaret
Garner, the Court gave permission to Mrs.
Blackwell to reply to Colonel C. Mrs. B.
preferred not to speak at the bar, but
addressed the crowded court-room directly
after the adjournment. Her eloquent remarks
will be found in the papers of the day. At
the close of the hearing, February 14th, the
commissioner adjourned his court to the
21st, afterwards to the 26th, when, he said,
he would give his decision.
| Meantime the case was making
some progress in the State courts.
Sheriff Brashears having made return
to the Common Pleas Court that the
fugitives were in the custody of the
United States Marshal, Judge Carter
said this could not be received as a
true return, as they were in the
County jail, under the sheriff's
control. The sheriff then amended
his return, so as to state that the
prisoners were in his custody, as
required in the writ, and this was
received by the Court. The fugitives
now came fully into the charge of
the State authorities. The sheriff
held them "by virtue of a capias
issued on an indictment by the grand
jury for murder." |
The slaves declared they
would go dancing to the gallows rather than
to be sent back into slavery.
On the 26th February, Commissioner Pendery
gave his decision. First, he refused to
discharge Margaret and three others from the
custody of the United States Marshal and
deliver them to the Sheriff of Hamilton
County, although held to answer, under the
laws of Ohio, to the charge of murder. He
then proceeded to consider the claim of
Marshall to three of the slaves, decided it
to be valid, and ordered them into
Marshall's custody. He then considered
Gaines's claim to Margaret and her three
surviving children, decided that also to be
good and valid, and ordered them to be
delivered into the possession of said
Gaines.
The case of the rightful custody, as between
the United States Marshal and the Ohio
Sheriff also came on, February 26th before
Judge Leavitt, of the United States District
Court, and was argued by counsel on both
sides. On the 28th, Judge Leavitt decided
that the custody was with the United States
Marshal. The substance of Judge L.'s
argument and decision is found in the
following extract.
| "Judge McLean says: 'Neither
this nor any other Court of the
United States, nor Judge thereof,
can issue a habeas corpus to bring
up a prisoner who is in custody
under the sentence or execution of a
State Court, for any other purpose
than to be used as a witness. And it
is immaterial whether the
imprisonment be under civil or
criminal process.' If it be true, as
there asserted, that no Federal
Court can interfere with the
exercise of the proper jurisdiction
of a State Court, either in a civil
or criminal case, the converse of
the proposition is equally true. And
it results that a State Court cannot
take from an officer of the United
States, even on a criminal charge,
the custody of a person in execution
on a civil case. "It is said in argument that if these persons cannot be held by the arrest of the Sheriff under the State process, the rights and dignity of Ohio are invaded without the possibility of redress. I cannot concur in this view. The Constitution and laws of the United States provide for a reclamation of these persons, by a demand on the Executive of Kentucky. It is true, if now remanded to the claimant and taken back to Kentucky as slaves, they cannot be said to have fled from justice in Ohio; but it would clearly be a case within the spirit and intention of the Constitution and the Act of Congress, and I trust nothing would be hazarded by the prediction that upon demand properly made upon the Governor of Kentucky, he would order them to be surrendered to the authorities of Ohio to answer to its violated law. I am sure it is not going too far to say that if the strictness of the law did not require this, an appeal to comity would not be in vain." |
Mr. Chambers said his
client, Mr. Gaines, authorized him to say
that he would hold the woman Margaret, who
had killed her child, subject to the
requisition of the Governor of Ohio, to
answer for any crime she might have
committed in Ohio.
Judge Leavitt's decision covered the cases
of the four adult fugitives. Another legal
process was going on, at the same time,
before Judge Burgoyne, of the Probate Court,
viz.—a hearing under a writ of habeas corpus
allowed by Judge Burgoyne, alleging the
illegal detention, by the United States
Marshal, of the three negro children,
Samuel, Thomas, and Silla Garner, which took
place in the Probate Court, before Judge B.,
on the afternoon of February 27.
Mr. Jolliffe said he represented the infants
at the request of their father and mother,
who had solicited him to save the children,
if possible.
Messrs. Headington and Ketchum appeared for
the United States Marshal.
Judge Burgoyne intimated that, in view of
the serious and important questions
involved, he should require some time to
render a decision. He intimated, however,
that a majority of the Judges of the Supreme
Court having passed on the constitutionality
of the Fugitive Slave Law was no reason why
he should not take up the Constitution and
read it for himself, being sworn to support
the Constitution of the United States and
the Constitution of the State of Ohio.
Mr. Ketchum suggested that his Honor was as
much bound in conscience to regard the
decision of the majority of the Judges of
the United States Courts as the express
provisions of the Constitution itself.
Judge Burgoyne said, that however the
decisions of the Judges of the United States
Courts might aid him in coming to a
conclusion, where the obligations of his
conscience were involved, he could not
screen himself behind a decision made by
somebody else.
Judge Burgoyne subsequently decided that, in
as far as the Fugitive Slave Law was
intended to suspend the writ of habeas
corpus—and he believed that it was so
intended—it clearly transcended the limits
prescribed by the Constitution, and is
"utterly void." Judge B. required the United
States Marshal to answer to the writ on the
following Friday; and on his neglect to do
so, fined and imprisoned him. Judge Leavitt,
of the United States Court, soon released
the Marshal from prison.
| The Cincinnati Columbian, of February 29, gave the following account:—The last act of the drama of the fugitives was yesterday performed by the rendition of the seven persons whose advent into the city, under the bloody auspices of murder, caused such a sensation in the community. After the decision of Judge Leavitt, Sheriff Brashears surrendered the four fugitives in his custody, under a capias from an Ohio court, to United States Marshal Robinson. An omnibus was brought to the jail, and the fugitives were led into it—a crowd of spectators looking on. |
Margaret was in custody of
Deputy-Marshal Brown. She appeared greatly
depressed and dispirited. The little infant,
Silla, was carried by Pfc. Russell, the
door-keeper of the United States Court, and
was crying violently. Pollock, the reporter
of the proceedings in the United States
Court, conducted another of the fugitives,
and all were safely lodged in the omnibus,
which drove down to the Covington
ferry-boat; but, although a large crowd
followed it, no hootings or other signs of
excitement or disapprobation were shown.
On arriving at the Kentucky shore, a large
crowd was in attendance, which expressed its
pleasure at the termination of the long
proceedings in this city by triumphant
shouts. The fugitives were escorted to the
jail, where they were safely incarcerated,
and the crowd moved off to the Magnolia
Hotel, where several toasts were given and
drank. The crowd outside were addressed from
the balcony by H.H. Robinson, Esq., United
States Marshal for the Southern District of
Ohio, who declared that he had done his duty
and no more, and that it was a pleasure to
him to perform an act that added another
link to the glorious chain that bound the
Union. [What a Union! For what "glorious"
purposes!]
Mr. Finnell, attorney for the claimants,
said he never loved the Union so dearly as
now. It was proved to be a substantial
reality.
Judge Flinn also addressed to the crowd one
of his peculiar orations; and was followed
by Mr. Gaines, owner of Margaret and the
children. After hearty cheering the crowd
dispersed.
Further to signalize their triumph, the
slaveholders set on the Covington mob to
attack Mr. Babb, reporter for one of the
Cincinnati papers, on the charge of being an
abolitionist, and that gentleman was knocked
down, kicked, trampled on, and would
undoubtedly have been murdered, but for the
interference of some of the United States
Deputy Marshals.
A legal irregularity on the part of the
Sheriff was brought to the notice of Judge
Carter on the morning of February 29. It was
passed over lightly.
On the Sunday after the delivery of the
slaves, they were visited in the Covington
jail by Rev. P.C. Bassett, whose account of
his interview, especially with Margaret, was
published in the American Baptist, and may
also be found in the National Antislavery
Standard of March 15, 1850. Margaret
confessed that she had killed the child. "I
inquired," says Mr. Bassett, "if she were
not excited almost to madness when she
committed the act! 'No,' she replied, 'I was
as cool as I now am; and would much rather
kill them at once, and thus end their
sufferings, than have them taken back to
slavery and be murdered by piece-meal.' She
then told the story of her wrongs. She spoke
of her days of suffering, of her nights of
unmitigated toil, while the bitter tears
coursed their way down her cheeks."
Governor Chase, of Ohio, made a requisition
upon Governor Morehead, of Kentucky, for the
surrender of Margaret Garner, charged with
murder. The requisition was taken by Joseph
Cooper, Esq. to Gov. Morehead, at Frankfort,
on the 6th of March—an unpardonable delay in
the circumstances. Gov. Morehead issued an
order for the surrender of Margaret. On
taking it to Louisville, Mr. Cooper found
that Margaret, with her infant child, and
the rest of Mr. Gaines's slaves had been
sent down the river in the steamboat Henry
Lewis, to be sold in Arkansas. Thus it was
that Gaines kept his pledged word that
Margaret should be surrendered upon the
requisition of the Governor of Ohio! On the
passage down the Ohio, the steamboat, in
which the slaves were embarked, came in
collision with another boat, and so
violently that Margaret and her child, with
many others, were thrown into the water.
About twenty-five persons perished. A
colored man seized Margaret and drew her
back to the boat, but her babe was drowned!
"The mother," says a correspondent of the
Louisville Courier, "exhibited no other
feeling than joy at the loss of her child."
So closed another act of this terrible
tragedy. The slaves were transferred to
another boat, and taken to their
destination. (See Mr. Cooper's letter to
Gov. Chase, dated Columbus, March 11, 1856.)
Almost immediately on the above tragic news,
followed the tidings that Gaines had
determined to bring Margaret back to
Covington, Kentucky, and hold her subject to
the requisition of the Governor of Ohio.
Evidently he could not stand up under the
infamy of his conduct. Margaret was brought
back, and placed in Covington jail, to await
a requisition. On Wednesday, Mr. Cox, the
prosecuting-attorney, received the necessary
papers from Gov. Chase, and the next day
(Thursday), two of the Sheriffs deputies
went over to Covington for Margaret, but did
not find her, as she had been taken away
from the jail the night before. The jailor
said he had given her up on Wednesday night,
to a man who came there with a written order
from her master, Gaines, but could not tell
where she had been taken. The officers came
back and made a return 'not found.'
| The Cincinnati Gazette said,—"On Friday our sheriff received information which induced him to believe that she had been sent on the railroad to Lexington, thence via Frankfort to Louisville, there to be shipped off to the New Orleans slave market. |
He immediately telegraphed
to the sheriff at Louisville (who holds the
original warrant from Gov. Morehead, granted
on the requisition of Gov. Chase,) to arrest
her there, and had a deputy in readiness to
go down for her. But he has received no
reply to his dispatch. As she was taken out
on Wednesday night, there is reason to
apprehend that she has already passed
Louisville, and is now on her way to New
Orleans.
Why Mr. Gaines brought Margaret back at all,
we cannot comprehend. If it was to vindicate
his character, he was most unfortunate in
the means he selected, for his duplicity has
now placed this in a worse light than ever
before, and kept before the public the
miserable spectacle of his dishonor.
We have learned now, by experience, what is
that boasted comity of Kentucky on which
Judge Leavitt so earnestly advised Ohio to
rely."
The assertion of the Louisville Journal,
that Margaret was kept in Covington jail
"ten days," and that the Ohio authorities
had been notified of the same, is pronounced
to be untrue in both particulars by the
Cincinnati Gazette, which paper also
declares that prompt action was taken by the
governor of Ohio, and the attorney and
sheriff of Hamilton County, as soon as the
fact was known.
| Here we must leave Margaret, a noble woman indeed, whose heroic spirit and daring have won the willing, and extorted the unwilling, admiration of hundreds of thousands. Alas for her! after so terrible a struggle, so bloody a sacrifice, so near to deliverance once, twice, and even a third time, to be, by the villainy and lying or her "respectable" white owner again engulphed in the abyss of Slavery! What her fate is to be, it is not hard to conjecture. But friendless, heart-stricken, robbed of her children, outraged as she has been, not wholly without friends, |
"Yea, three firm friends, more sure than day and night, Herself, her Maker, and the angel Death."
The Fugitive Slave Law, and its Victims, 1856