Feminist Themes and The Story of Margaret Garner

I have been consistently impressed by the intersectional feminism throughout Beloved. It seems that traditional feminism, such as the Women’s Liberation Movement and other feminist movements have ignored or even rejected the considerations and representation of black women. I think Toni Morrison does an incredible job of portraying strong female characters and their untold experiences, including topics like objectification, enslavement and rape.

While I was looking up the novel online I realized that the book is actually based on the true story of Margaret Garner, who killed her child with a butcher knife rather than have the child become a slave. Garner, her husband and several other families escaped to Cincinnatti over the frozen Ohio River. Slave catchers and U.S. Marshalls invaded the house of a former slave and found, the Garners. By the time she was found, Margaret had killed one child and wounded the other three, preparing to kill them. While she was tried in court, one abolitionist, Lucy Stone, stated:

“Recalling to everyone's memory the faces of Margaret's children, and of A. K. Gaines, Stone told the packed courtroom: "The faded faces of the Negro children tell too plainly to what degradation the female slaves submit. Rather than give her daughter to that life, she killed it. If in her deep maternal love she felt the impulse to send her child back to God, to save it from coming woe, who shall say she had no right not to do so?”

Margaret Garner, her husband and their youngest child were returned to a slave state with their previous owner. She was supposed to be tried for murder but her owner, Archibald K. Gaines, continuously moved her and she was never found.

If you read about her experiences, it is clear that Margaret Garner was trying to prevent her children from the awful physical, mental and sexual abuse she experienced under Mr. Gaines. Margaret Garner’s case was especially difficult because her children were half black and half white because she was raped by her owner, and therefore, they were subject to feelings of disgrace and sin by those around them.

Toni Morrison does a great job of representing the female perspective in this unimaginable situation. I think Morrison makes it possible for us to understand this decision and the strength of the women involved. The novel develops ideas about women recovering from slavery, sexual abuse, and it also makes us consider the extent of maternal love.