Margaret Garner - Memorialized

Memorialized

Garner's life story was the basis of Frances Harper's 1859 poem "Slave Mother: A Tale of Ohio". She also inspired Kentucky painter Thomas Satterwhite Noble's 1867 painting, The Modern Medea; Medea was a woman in Greek mythology who killed her own children. The painting, owned by Cincinnati manufacturer Procter and Gamble Corporation, was presented as a gift to the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, where it remains on permanent display. Learning about Margaret Garner's trial and story, Toni Morrison was inspired to write her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Beloved (1987).

Years later the Michigan Opera Theatre, Cincinnati Opera and the Opera Company of Philadelphia commissioned the opera Margaret Garner. Morrison wrote the libretto and music was composed by the Grammy-winning Richard Danielpour. The opera premiered in those three cities in 2005. It set records for opera attendance in Cincinnati. In Detroit, it played to unusually large audiences with a high number of African Americans. It was sold out in Philadelphia. Mezzo soprano Denyce Graves sang Margaret Garner, and baritone Rod Gilfry sang the role of the plantation owner Edward Gaines.

In 2008, documentary filmmaker, Joanne Caputo, winner of the PBS Independent Lens Audience Award for her 2005 “On A Roll: Family, Disability and the American Dream,” self-published “Margaret Garner: Diversity and Depth of Love.” The non-fiction two-book manuscript includes a memoir, in which Caputo describes her paranormal experiences with Margaret Garner and a claim of being Garner’s reincarnated murdered daughter.