13. Margaret Garner, Inspiration for Toni Morrison’s Beloved
Many people are at least familiar with the horrifying plot of Toni Morrison’s Beloved, in which a slave kills her own child rather than let them be returned to a life of slavery. The gut-wrenching maternal decision depicted in the novel was based upon a real woman who had to make the same choice: Margaret Garner. Garner was a Kentucky slave called “Peggy” by her masters who escaped slavery with her husband and children. When slave catchers surrounded their safe house en route to the Underground Railroad, Garner decided to kill her children and herself rather than subject them to the abject horror of slavery. She was only able to kill one child before the slave catchers broke in, arresting her and returning her family to slavery.
