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Celia, A Slave a True Story Essay

Celia, A Slave a True Story Essay
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“Celia, A Slave” is a nonfiction book about the life of a slave named Celia and the hardships that she had experienced at a young age due to her skin color. We do not know the where Celia was born, we do know that she was raised in Callaway County, Missouri. She lived here from the age of fourteen when she was purchased until her death when she was nineteen. The amount of slave masters she had until she was purchased and moved to Callaway County. Her last master she had was a well-known and respected farmer, Robert Newsom. Once she was purchased by Mr. Newsom her entire life changed.

Newsom did not always live in Missouri, before he came, he lived in Virginia with his wife and two children. He had a son named Henry and a daughter named Virginia. The Newsom family decided to abandon Virginia between 1819 and 1822 and headed west to the newly created territories of the southwest. (McLaurin, 2) The promise of a better life took the Newsom family to Missouri. Newsom soon became one of the top crop producers in the area by 1855. He produced many different grain crops; oats, wheat, and rye. He also had many animals; horses, milch cows, beef cattle, swine, sheep, and oxen. On top of the crops and animals, Mr. Newsom also owned five slaves. These five slaves consisted of four adults whose age range between eighteen and thirty-one, and he also had a five-year-old boy. Newsom’s land was over eight hundred acres and was worth around $3,500. (McLaurin, 9) Once the Newsom family moved to Missouri, Robert and his wife had two more children. Robert named them David and Mary. In 1849, Robert’s wife passed away, leaving him to care for their children and the property alone. Newsom’s two sons had moved out and purchased their own land while his two daughters continued to stay with him. Virginia’s children were also living in the Newsom household. Virginia had four children; James, Amelia, Thomas, and Billy.

The year after Newsom’s wife, whom we do not know the name, Robert purchased Celia. At the time Celia was fourteen years old. He went to Audrain County, Missouri to purchase her. The reasoning as to why Newsom purchased a fourteen-year-old slave girl is not known. It was believed to be that he purchased Celia to be a sex slave for him. The population of Callaway County, “It indicates that Newsom should have been able to obtain a bride from among the white female residents”. (McLaurin, 21) Instead of choosing a wife from the Callaway County residents, he chose to buy a slave. Celia was purchased not only to be his sex slave, but he also wanted Celia to replace his dead wife. Once Newsom had purchased Celia, they headed back to Callaway County. “On his return to Callaway County, Newsom raped Celia, and by that act at once established and defined the nature of the relationship between the master and the newly acquired slave.” (McLaurin, 24) Newsom declared that Celia was not only his slave, but also his concubine. A concubine is someone who lives with a man but is lower than his wife.

The life of Celia most likely looked rich and luxury compared to most of the other slaves. When Celia and Newsom arrived back at his plantation, he gave Celia her own cabin not too far from the house. This cabin of hers was bigger than most slave cabins. Newsom did not make Celia work the hours or type of work the other slaves had, he made Celia his cook. As far as we know Celia was not beat like other salves. She was raped on plenty occasions anytime Newsom felt that he wanted to be sexually pleased. With these sexual encounters there was no protection used, so Celia got pregnant two times with Newsom’s children. Since Newsom’s daughters lives with him, their knowledge of this sexual relationship between Newsom and Celia was very likely. Unfortunately, his daughters did not have the right to help Celia and speak up about these incidents as they were still living under his roof. Newsom’s words about Celia were recorded, “a choice made the more convenient by the ability to the present the girl as a domestic servant purchased for the benefit of his daughters”. (McLaurin, 21) Celia obviously could not speak up about this because she was merely a salve.

There were many other young slave women like Celia who were in the same position as her. There have been many confirmations that slave women were frequently abused by white men. The slave women did not have the right to say no or stop the actions of their white masters because they were considered a part of his property. The salve would not want to upset their master since their master could very easily beat them. “Virtually every known nineteenth century female slave narrative contains a reference to, as some juncture, the ever-present threat and reality of rape”. (McLaurin, 24) When Celia was raped the day Newsom purchased her, it was most likely her first time having sex. This would have caused psychological damage to her, like most rape victims. “One in five female salves experienced sexual exploitation.” (McLaurin, 116)

Celia was sexually involved with her master Robert Newsom, not by choice, but also involved romantically a slave named George. George was one of Newsom’s male salves and wanted nothing but the best for Celia. Celia, one day, decided to tell George about the sexual relations that happen between her and Mr. Newsom. George was not on board with this situation and told Celia that if she wanted her and George to be together, she would have to break it off with Newsom. Celia loved George, so there was no doubt that she wanted to break things off with Mr. Newsom, but that just was not an option for her because she is his property and that means she cannot speak up to him. “In an effort to stop Newsom’s sexual advances and thus retain George’s affections, she appealed to the family members, citing her pregnancy and accompanying sickness rather than her relationship with George.” (McLaurin, 31) She told Newsom’s daughters that if he did not stop making sexual passes at her, she would hurt him. His daughters did not tell him because they can not tell him what to do. Celia decided to talk to Mr. Newsom about their sexual relationship. She told him that there would be no more of it, and if he tried anything, she would hurt him. Newsom did not take these threats seriously and went to her cabin on the night of June 23, 1855. Earlier in the day Celia had stashed a large stick in her cabin to use as a weapon.

That night Newsom went to Celia’s cabin. They were exchanging words when Celia denied Newsom sex. He then proceeded to reach out to grab Celia, so she reached for the large stick and struck him over the head to try to get him to stop. After she hit him, he fell to the floor and reached for her yet again, Celia then proceeded to strike him once more over the head to protect herself. The second blow to the head caused Newsom to fall completely down. She reached down and noticed that he was dead on the floor. She was not sure what to do, her kids were sleeping in the cabin. Many hours later, after she had thought about what to do, Celia decided that burning his body in her fireplace would be the best option to get rid of his body with no evidence left behind. She threw his limp body into the fireplace and continued to keep an eye on the fire. Once most of the flesh was burned off, she took smaller bones and crushed them and took the larger bones and hid them in her cabin. Early the next morning Celia spotted the twelve-year-old Coffee Waynescott. She asked Coffee to come into her cabin to help her get ashes from the fire outside. He helped her dump the ashes outside of her cabin. Coffee did not know that he was helping Celia dispose of his grandfathers’ ashes. “Coffee carried the bucket outside and spilled his grandfathers’ remains in the grass alongside a beat down like path.” (McLaurin, 37)

Robert Newsom’s two daughters, Virginia and Mary started to get worried when they would not find their dad. They sent out a search party of many people; family members, neighbors, and a couple others who live in Callaway County. They knew about George and Celia’s relationship, so they suspected that George had got jealous and killed him. William Powell, Newsom’s neighbor, interrogated George. George threw Celia under the bus to protect his own well-being. This shows that he was not looking out for Celia, even though she only did as he told her to do. Celia was not worried about Newsom’s death coming back to her, which is why she did not bother leaving her cabin. The search party went to Celia’s cabin, and interrogated her, and she denied everything. She had said she had nothing to do with his disappearance. She later admitted that Newsom had went to her cabin the night before, but when she denied him sex, he left, and she did see him again. Only after the search party started to threaten her kids’ lives, Celia decided to tell them what the true story was only if both of Newsom’s sons left the room. After they left the room, Celia proceeded to tell the others exactly what had happened and admitted to the murder of her master, Robert Newsom.

Celia confessed in front of Newsom’s family of the murder to committed, so his son David filed an affidavit. This affidavit had said that David, has caused to suspect and believe and does suspect and believe that one negro women named Celia, a slave of the said Robert Newsom did at the county aforesaid feloniously, willfully and with malice aforethought with a club or some other weapon strike and mortally wound the said Robert Newsom, of which wound or wounds the said Robert Newsom instantly died”. (McLaurin, 48) The men that were in the assembly reading over this case, were not in Celia’s favor. They related to Newsom since they too are Missouri farmers and his peers. The assembly had six men; George Thomas, Daniel Robinson, John Wells, Simpson Hyton, George Brown, and John Carrington. (McLaurin, 48) June 25, 1855 was the official start to the “State of Missouri versus Celia, A Slave”, and there was an issue sent out for Celia’s arrest.

The Circuit Court Judge William Hall chose the defense attorney for Celia’s case. She was given a decent attorney, which was Hall’s best choice. John Jameson was the defense attorney’s name and he was well known in the community. Jameson did not participate in slavery debates. He gave credible defense to Celia during her trail. Jameson made it extremely hard for people to just let this case be tossed to the side as a sham. He might have felt sorry for Celia in two ways. First was Jameson’s daughters, he was a father of three daughters. His oldest girl was about Celia’s age when she was first purchased by Robert Newsom. Second was that he studied religion. Along with Jameson, Celia was also given two other attorneys to show that Hall was creating a fair trial. The other two attorneys, Nathan Chapman Kouns and Isaac M. Boulware, were not very experienced when it came to trials, but they could help Celia and her case since they were very well educated.

Jameson’s way in the court room, got him held back when defending Celia. For the prosecution; Jefferson Jones, Virginia Waynescott, Coffee Waynescott, and William Powell, were called to the stand. Not too long after the prosecution called their witness’ the defense called to the stand; Dr. James M. Martin and Thomas Shoatman. Jameson could not ask any personal questions to the family members. Any indication of Celia and Mr. Newsom’s sexual relationship was not allowed to be brought up in the courtroom, and that any time it was, it was to be removed from the record. Asking questions about this would violate the “Victorian sexual mores of the period.” (McLaurin, 98) Jameson also got in trouble when he tried to ask Dr. James M. Martin a certain question about the case. He asked, “How long does it take to burn a human adult body in a fireplace that was the size of Celia’s?” Every time he would ask this question, no matter how he worded it, the prosecution would object, and Judge hall would sustain the objection leaving Jameson empty handed. Anytime that Jameson would ask Thomas Shoatman certain questions about self-defense, Shoatman would attempt to answer and explain that the second strike to Robert Newsom was in self-defense, not pure murder. Each attempt to answer by Shoatman was sustained because they were implying Celia was acting only in self-defense, which is not common among slaves. John Jameson was sustained many times throughout the trial, “he had implanted the thoughts of rape and self-defense in the minds of the jurors.” (McLaurin, 103)

Throughout the trial many things arose that did not favor Celia being pleaded not guilty. The defense attorney did not really have a chance because everything the defense brought up, was sustained by the judge. The main things that were sustained were questions about self-defense and Celia’s motives. Jameson wanted to focus on the motives rather than the actual murder itself. Everything he said was sustained. The defense requested Celia be found not guilty of murder in the first degree, the crime with which she was charged, if the jury found that Celia had killed Newsom “without deliberation and premeditation, and in the heat of passion”.” (McLaurin, 106) He also wanted them to agree to the terms that Celia did not have the intent to kill him at the time of this incidence. Each of these were to help save the life of Celia, a slave and reduce her sentence to Murder in the Second Degree. But Judge Hall did as he was the entire trial and sustained the instructions. Of course, Judge Hall sided with the prosecution and did not take any instructions from the defense about the motives of Celia.

The other problem the defendants ran unto the law was that Celia was a slave. In Missouri there is a law that states, “A slave could not testify against a white person, even one deceased.” (McLaurin, 106) The defense tried to argue this law and allow Celia to testify, but Judge Hall was not going to allow it. If they would have allowed Celia to be protected from sexual assault while under the Missouri Law, that means that they would have granted a save woman the same rights as a free woman. There were too many issues to help Celia in this trial.

“What legal remedy did a black slave woman have if she were raped by her white master?” There were many different sides to this matter as there were so many slavery issues going on currently. Dr. James M. Martin stated that, “slaves possessed certain elemental human rights, which owners were bound to respect, rather than from any opposition to slavery”. (McLaurin, 100) The rape of a slave did not appear for the first time when Celia’s case was brought to trial, there had been many debated of this around the state courts. “For throughout the slaveholding states, the law gave a slave the right to use force to repel the physical attacks that threatened his or her life”. (McLaurin, 101) Although it does state that it gives a slave the right to repel their masters, it did not give Celia the right to beat her master to his death. The defense tried to use Section 29 of the second article of the Missouri status of 1845 which said that “to take any woman unlawfully against her will and by force, menace or duress, compel her to be defiled”. (McLaurin, 107) If a master was to be convicted of this, they would serve for three to five years in prison. Since Newsom was committing a crime, Celia did have the right to use this force is what the defense attorney was trying to get at.

On the other hand, there is more laws that state what she did is in fact illegal. With one Missouri Law, it states that since a slave is the property of the master, it is not considered rape, and is okay for the master to commit this act since they own the slave. With white women there actually was a crime called rape, but when it came to black women there was no crime against it since they were property. Slave women were never protected by the law in the event of a rape, and if a slave woman was raped, there was nothing done about it. Celia was found guilty, towards the end of the trial, for the murder of Robert Newsom. They declared that Celia was convicted in the first degree and was executed by being hung.

When I was reading this book, I first thought that she was given the justice she deserved. Judge William Hall built her a great defense team with John Jameson. He was the best attorney for the job. Judge Hall also picked a fair jury that would not have biased opinions. Each of the jurors were farmers like Newsom, but only half of them owned slaves. The request for the jury, defense, and prosecution were all as fair as it gets. As I continued to read the book, I decided that Celia did not get the justice she deserved. The court allowed illegal and incompetent testimony on behalf of the state and excluded legal defense testimony from the jury. They also refused crucial jury instructions. Celia was given a good defense team, but other than that there was no help on her side. Judge Hall sustained all comments and questions that may have helped Celia throughout the trial in anyway. He had her execution set and declined a stay of execution which the defense ordered to allow the Supreme Court to have the chance to hear Celia’s appeal. Someone broke her out of jail in hopes that it would give the Supreme Court time to hear Celia’s appeal. After reading the book completely I do not believe that Celia received the justice that she should have during her trial through the Missouri court system.

The case of Celia, A Slave affected many of the slavery debates that were going on during the time of Celia’s trial. Celia’s choice the night of June 23, 1855, was the beginning of a whole new world. Celia’s case showed what the typical relationship between male and his female slaves was. Celia’s decision in that brief second, to strike Mr. Newsom a second time provided a light to all slaves, mostly the ones in the same situation as her. “The events of Celia’s life, and the decisions they forced upon others, also forcefully remind us that personal decisions about the morality of slavery were never made in a social and political vacuum”. (McLaurin, xiii)

Author: Lloyd Gilbert
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