Slave Escape / Controversial Judgment

On a snowy night in January 1856, seventeen enslaved people fled from the foot of Main Street across the frozen Ohio River, and Margaret Garner was among them. After their arrest in Ohio, Garner killed her little daughter rather than see her returned to slavery. The widely publicized capture drew national attention because it involved questions of federal and state authority. The decision in Margaret Garner's case intensified abolitionist feeling: she was returned to her master even though she wished to remain in Ohio, even at risk of death for her crime. Although she was returned to Kentucky with her master's agreement to extradite her to Ohio, she was soon afterward sent south and never heard from again.

Covington, Kentucky · United States