Margaret Garner
A new master takes control of the Kentucky plantation where Margaret Garner is enslaved. He brings Margaret to work in the house while her husband Robert is rented elsewhere; the master’s daughter Caroline becomes attached to Margaret. Robert returns to help Margaret and their children escape, but the overseer discovers them. Robert kills him during the struggle, and the family flees. A posse finds them: Robert is captured and lynched, while Margaret kills her children to prevent their return to slavery. At trial, Caroline unsuccessfully urges her father to treat Margaret’s act as murder rather than destruction of property. Margaret is sentenced to death and steps voluntarily from the gallows.