As we were reading Beloved, I felt like I had heard this story before. So I looked around and came across the story of Margaret Garner, the woman whom Morrison based her novel off of. Margaret Garner was born as a slave during the pre-Civil War era in Kentucky. Like Sethe, she was able to marry a fellow slave, but also had children by her white master. Eventually, she, her husband, and their four children escaped with other slave families across the frozen Ohio river into Cincinnati She and her family stayed with an uncle there while many of the other slaves escaped to Canada. Soon slave catchers came and surrounded the house where Garner and her family were staying. Her husband attempted to shoot the slave catchers and Margaret killed her two-year-old daughter with a butcher knife. She was stopped before she could kill her other children and herself. Similar to Sethe, Margaret also did not want her children enslaved. However, one interesting difference is that in Beloved, we don't really get the sense that Sethe was trying to kill herself--she is focused only on preventing her children from become slaves.
So far, Sethe's and Margaret's stories are quite similar. However, their lives diverge as they are jailed. In Beloved, we are not really told about what happens to Sethe when she is jailed. In Margaret Garner's case, she presents one of the most complicated runaway slave cases that the courts had ever dealt with. The main problem was deciding whether to try Garner as property under the Fugitive Slave Law, or to treat her as a person and try her for murder, in the interest of protecting the people of Ohio.It was essentially whether federal or state law should take precedence. In the end she was tried under the Fugitive Slave Law and forced to return to Kentucky. Ohio officials tried to track her down to try her for murder, but her master continually moved them around. She eventually died of typhoid fever in 1958.
Sethe's story in some way's seem a lot happier than the life of Margaret Garner. Perhaps Morrison chose to have Sethe become free so that she could explore the theme of the past always coming back. Also, Morrison probably chose not to discuss Sethe's imprisonment because it is not too relevant to the overall themes of the novel. Additionally Sethe's story is a lot richer because we are able to see the thoughts of her and those around her.
It's interesting that you point out how much happier Sethe's story is, since it seems that Sethe is unhappy, or her depression is referenced at various points in the book. In fact, the time after Beloved's death up until Paul D's arrival is described as incredibly lonely, and almost feels as if in a fog. However, Sethe's story seems to get much happier after Paul D's arrival and Sethe's discovery that Beloved is her reincarnated child. I guess a lot of the difference comes from the fact that we are hearing Sethe's story firsthand, and from the perspective of everyone involved. IF we distance ourselves from the story, it's easy to see that Margaret Garner's story seems to be much sadder
ReplyDeleteI don't know if you already checked out Morrison's foreword, since I suggested that you not look at it until you finished the novel, but she actually talks about Margaret Garner (and note how she used the name for her "benevolent" slave-owner in the novel!), and her reasons for taking her story in some of the creative directions she did.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing we've heard so far, about Sethe's legal situation, is that Mr. Bodwin wrote a letter to a judge on her behalf. Like Margaret Garner, there's an implication that Sethe became a bit of a rallying point for abolitionists in the area--as poignant evidence of the profound damage of slavery.