Danielpour MARGARET GARNER (vocal score)

fire and grabs several pieces of coal; she lunges at Gaines, attempting to burn him. Gaines yells that she can pretend to be as crazy as she likes, he doesn’t care even if she mangles herself in the process. Margaret sees Robert outside, standing on a tall box underneath the elm tree. A noose has been placed around his neck, and he is surrounded by fiery torches planted in the ground. His cries of love to her are cut off when one of Gaines’s men kicks the box away. Determined that her children not be forced to endure a lifetime filled with slavery’s horrors, Margaret violently attacks and murders them: first slitting the throat of her daughter, then stabbing the younger one. Shocked by the bloody carnage, Gaines and his men surround Margaret.

Intermezzo: In this moment “out of time,” total darkness envelops the stage. Gradually, the image of Margaret, alone, becomes visible. With defiant and noble grandeur, she embraces her life’s circumstances.

Scene 3: In a Courtroom, in early April 1861 Margaret Garner sits in the middle of a courtroom, surrounded by militia officers. After capturing the runaway slave in Ohio, Edward Gaines had her transported back to Kentucky, where she now stands trial for the “theft and destruction” of the two dead children, considered his property. Local citizens fill the courtroom gallery, for they have followed the case with great interest and curiosity, and eagerly await Margaret’s sentencing by the three presiding judges.

Caroline Gaines tries to rationalize with her father, and contends that Margaret stands wrongly accused: a mother who kills her children cannot be said to steal them. The proper charge, she insists, is murder–for Margaret killed human beings. The judges argue vehemently that Margaret’s case is one of “property” and the financial loss suffered by Gaines. Furthermore, Margaret has no legal right or claim to her children; slaves own nothing, least of all their master’s other slaves. The onlookers concur rowdily. Laughing cynically at Caroline’s perceived naiveté, the judges add that the veracity of their beliefs is confirmed and defended by the Bible.

Caroline senses the hopelessness of the situation, and makes a personal appeal to her father on Margaret’s behalf. She pleads that a man of her father’s stature could influence the debate on slavery that is tearing apart the country, as well as their family. Margaret is not the only one guilty of a crime, she admonishes; everyone bears some of the blame for the discord. But Gaines merely reiterates that he has committed no crime; society and the law affirm his behavior. When the judges declare that Margaret is to be executed for theft, the onlookers express relief–for it confirms their deeply held conviction that they are superior to Margaret. Having sat quietly throughout the proceedings, Margaret suddenly rises from her chair, and glares at those in the courtroom. She states emphatically that indeed she is not like them; she is a unique individual over whom no one present has any power. Citing their full legal authority, the judges officially sentence Margaret to be executed by sunrise. They quickly recess to their chambers, and the condemned prisoner is led from the courtroom. Dismayed by the verdict, Caroline again begs her father to urge the court for clemency. Betraying no sign of emotion, although secretly disturbed by the trial, Edward coolly states that Margaret must suffer the consequences of what she has done. Caroline retorts that her father also must accept responsibility for his actions, then walks out.

Left alone in the silent courtroom, Edward Gaines contemplates the course of his life, and wonders why he feels so troubled. His relationship with Caroline, once so close and loving, has deteriorated badly.

Feeling under tremendous stress, Gaines realizes that he must choose between the love of his radical daughter and the traditional way of life to which he has always aspired. iii