“It was evident that something wrong had been done, and weighed heavily on the wretched woman’s mind. Her words, and her strange gestures could not but have a meaning to them. Gossipping [sic] tongues, once started upon such matters, are not easily put to rest; and before long the dark rumor came to Mr. Phillips’s ears, that his kinswoman had been murdered—murdered by her, too, on whom, of all who lived around, he wished an opportunity of showing his dislike.
The overseer, whatever might have been his deficiencies, was a shrewd clear-headed man, and in ferretting out a mystery, had a few equals. In the present instance, his wits were sharpened by a sense of duty toward the dead widow, and a desire for revenge. He worked with sagacity, and allowed no incident to escape him, small or large. As might be expected, he soon discovered enough to make his surmises a positive belief.”
Passage from “Franklin Evans” by Walt Whitman on page103 and paragraph 5.
Heav’n has no Rage, like Love to Hatred turn’d,
Nor Hell a Fury, like a Woman scorn’d
-William Congreve, ‘The Mourning Bride’
Truer words could never have been written, especially when referring to Margaret. She was so bitter about Franklin leaving her to be with the widow Mrs. Conway that she sent not only her rival in love, but her own brother to their deaths. She was so caught up in her own jealousy that she ignored the danger she was placing her brother in- the same sibling who she pleaded with her owner to keep by her side.
Margaret didn’t just kill her sibling however. She also committed one of the greatest sins of the time- she killed a white woman. Margaret was always given a lot of leeway by the plantation owner, specifically with the overseer Mr. Phillips, but in killing Mrs. Conway, one of Phillips’ ‘kinswomen’, Margaret redrew the lines of Master and Servant and started herself on the path that would ultimately lead to her death.