Description: Margaret Garner was a runaway slave who, when confronted with capture, slit the throat of her toddler daughter rather than have her face a life in slavery. Driven toward Madness probes slavery's legacy of violence and trauma to capture her circumstances and her transformation from a murdering mother to an icon of tragedy and resistance.
Review Quotes: "[Taylor] uses exhaustive research to provide a nuanced view not only of Garner and her fateful act but also of the broader psychosis and trauma that slavery unleashed upon women. ... Driven toward Madness offers a compelling and heart-wrenching window onto the horrors faced by enslaved women in the United States."--Troy Jackson, Journal of American History