Beloved is actually based on the story of a real person, named Margaret Garner. Margaret was an African-American slave pre-Civil War. She was a house-servant for the Gaines family, who lived in Boone County, Kentucky. She married another slave from the same home, Robert Garner, in 1849, and they had their first child in 1850. Three of her later children were described as mulattos, and it has been suggested that they were the children of Archibald K. Gaines, who owned the plantation at the time.
On January 28, 1858, Margaret, Robert, and their family escaped across the frozen Ohio River to Cincinnati. They were with several other slave families, and split apart after crossing the river to avoid being so easily found and caught. The other slaves eventually made their way to the Underground Railroad and escaped into Canada. Slave Catchers and U.S. Marshals found the Garner family barricaded inside Margaret's uncle's house. Margaret chose to murder her two-year old daughter rather than allow her to be returned to slavery. She had also wounded her other children and was prepared to murder them and herself as well. She was subdued by the posse surrounding her house before she accomplished this. The whole group was taken to jail, and their trial lasted for two weeks. This was much longer than any other trial of its kind would have taken, they usually lasted less than a day.
The defense attorney attempted to have a murder trial take place in a free state. The prosecution argued that the federal law and the Fugitive Slave Act took precedence over state murder trials. Over a thousand people people turned out each day to watch the proceedings. Margaret wasn't immediately tried for murder, but returned to a slave state with Robert Gaines and her youngest child. When the Ohio authorities got a warrant for a trial for murder, the authorities could not find her because Gaines continued moving her around to evade them. They barely missed catching her in Covington and Frankfurt, and finally caught up with Gaines in Louisville, only to discover that he had put her and the child on a boat going to his brother's plantation in Arkansas.
The steamboat Margaret and her child were on collided with another boat en route, and began to sink. The baby drowned, and Margaret was happy because this made her other daughter safe as well. She then tried to drown herself. Margaret and Robert were kept in Arkansas for a short time before they were sent to New Orleans to be household servants for friends of the Gaines.
Robert Garner was found by a reporter in 1870. He told the reporter that they worked in New Orleans until being sold to Judge Dewitt Clinton Bonham in 1857 to work on a plantation at Tennessee Landing, Mississippi. Margaret died of typhoid fever in 1858, and urged Robert to "never marry again in slavery, but to live in hope of freedom."
Margaret's story inspired Beloved, as well as a poem by Frances Harper called "Slave Mother: A Tale Of Ohio" and a painting called The Modern Medea. (Medea is a character from Greek mythology who killed her children). The Michigan Opera, Cincinnati Opera and the Opera Company of Philadelphia commissioned an opera called Margaret Garner. It set records for opera attendance in Cincinnati.
In 2008, a documentary filmmaker, Joanne Caputo, published "Margaret Garner: Diversity and Depth of Love". It's two books that include a memoir, where Caputo describes paranormal experiences with Margaret Garner. She also claimed to be Margaret's murdered daughter reincarnated.
On January 28, 1858, Margaret, Robert, and their family escaped across the frozen Ohio River to Cincinnati. They were with several other slave families, and split apart after crossing the river to avoid being so easily found and caught. The other slaves eventually made their way to the Underground Railroad and escaped into Canada. Slave Catchers and U.S. Marshals found the Garner family barricaded inside Margaret's uncle's house. Margaret chose to murder her two-year old daughter rather than allow her to be returned to slavery. She had also wounded her other children and was prepared to murder them and herself as well. She was subdued by the posse surrounding her house before she accomplished this. The whole group was taken to jail, and their trial lasted for two weeks. This was much longer than any other trial of its kind would have taken, they usually lasted less than a day.
The defense attorney attempted to have a murder trial take place in a free state. The prosecution argued that the federal law and the Fugitive Slave Act took precedence over state murder trials. Over a thousand people people turned out each day to watch the proceedings. Margaret wasn't immediately tried for murder, but returned to a slave state with Robert Gaines and her youngest child. When the Ohio authorities got a warrant for a trial for murder, the authorities could not find her because Gaines continued moving her around to evade them. They barely missed catching her in Covington and Frankfurt, and finally caught up with Gaines in Louisville, only to discover that he had put her and the child on a boat going to his brother's plantation in Arkansas.
The steamboat Margaret and her child were on collided with another boat en route, and began to sink. The baby drowned, and Margaret was happy because this made her other daughter safe as well. She then tried to drown herself. Margaret and Robert were kept in Arkansas for a short time before they were sent to New Orleans to be household servants for friends of the Gaines.
Robert Garner was found by a reporter in 1870. He told the reporter that they worked in New Orleans until being sold to Judge Dewitt Clinton Bonham in 1857 to work on a plantation at Tennessee Landing, Mississippi. Margaret died of typhoid fever in 1858, and urged Robert to "never marry again in slavery, but to live in hope of freedom."
Margaret's story inspired Beloved, as well as a poem by Frances Harper called "Slave Mother: A Tale Of Ohio" and a painting called The Modern Medea. (Medea is a character from Greek mythology who killed her children). The Michigan Opera, Cincinnati Opera and the Opera Company of Philadelphia commissioned an opera called Margaret Garner. It set records for opera attendance in Cincinnati.
In 2008, a documentary filmmaker, Joanne Caputo, published "Margaret Garner: Diversity and Depth of Love". It's two books that include a memoir, where Caputo describes paranormal experiences with Margaret Garner. She also claimed to be Margaret's murdered daughter reincarnated.