Terry 1 Tyina Terry Dr. Britine Perkins HIST 1313 13 November 2020 Celia, A Slave: A True Story Book Analysis The book Celia, A Slave: A True Story tells a true story about a teenaged slave girl named Celia. In 1850, a Missouri farmer named Robert Newsom bought a fourteen-year-old slave named Celia. He bought her because he was looking for a sexual partner. He rapes Celia for five years, but this all changes on the night of June 23, 1855, when Robert goes to her cabin to rape her again. She tells him to leave her alone, and when he does not, she kills him by hitting him in the head twice. She then burns his body in the fireplace. Celia confesses to the murder the next morning. “John Jameson tries to convince the jury that she had a legal right to defend herself from being raped. However, as a slave Celia is considered property and not a person, which makes this difficult. In the end, Celia is found guilty and hung at the end of December. This book illuminates the unfair and morally wrong dilemmas that played a big part in a slaveholding society. Celia's case forced whites to make moral decisions and challenge the boundaries of slavery. McLaurin wanted to show that white people knew that slavery was morally wrong, but those who supported it did not care and how political aspects supported it. During the antebellum period, it was morally wrong for slave masters to rape their slaves. However, Robert made Celia the family cook to hide that he was engaging in these acts. Robert had bought Celia, so, therefore, she was his property, "as her master, he considered sexual relations with her his privilege." (McLaurin 28- 29). During Celia's trial, the neighboring state of Terry 2 Kansas was going through a battle over whether it would be admitted as a free or slave state. People in favor of slavery and people opposed to slavery were both trying to sway the vote. Missouri was being affected by what was happening in Kansas. "Thus on the eve of Celia's trial, the reverberations of an increasingly violent struggle over slavery in Kansas had disrupted the public tranquility in Missouri and threatened with discord, the state's basic political, legal, and social institutions" (McLaurin 67). Judge Hall, the judge over Celia's trial, wanted to make sure that all court procedures were followed correctly. He did not want the abolitionist to have another story of the brutality that slaves faced. He appointed Celia and an attorney named John Jameson and two other men so that she would have a credible defense team so that it would seem like she had a fair trial. Jameson and the rest of her defense team did not try to prove that she was innocent; instead, they wanted to prove her motive. He argues that Celia has the legal right to defend herself against rape from her master because, in Missouri, there is a law that gives women the right to use deadly force to defend their "honor." He just had to convince them that the same thing should be upheld for slaves since they were legally considered property. The prosecution wanted to keep the jury from thinking about her motive, so they objected to almost every question her defense team asked. Judge Hall favored them, so their objections were successful. In the end, Celia was found guilty and sentenced to death. Overall, McLaurin does an excellent job telling Celia's story even though it is missing much of her history. The book was easy to read and did an excellent job telling one of the many stories of how horribly and unfairly slaves were treated during the antebellum period. The book's conclusion was great because he talked about how it was prevalent for women slaves to be raped, but no one could help them accept themselves. The white women from slave-owning families tolerated the rape of female slaves because they were also considered property. Male slaves also Terry 3 could not help. In the book, when George, Celia's lover, is faced with helping her or helping himself, he chooses to protect himself. He also talks about how laws during the antebellum period contradicted. The laws said that slaves were their owner's property and not human beings but also said that slaves were people with a right to live. Whenever a case like Celia’s came up, they always favored the master's property rights over the slave's human rights. The book supports what is in the textbook. An example of that is when in the book, he writes about the KansaNebraska act and its effects on people's views of slavery, Missouri, and Celia's case. "Thus on the eve of Celia's trial, the reverberations of an increasingly violent struggle over slavery in Kansas had disrupted the public tranquility in Missouri and threatened with discord, the state's basic political, legal, and social institutions" (McLaurin 67). The textbook talks about how the Kansa-Nebraska act was made the year before Celia's case by Stephen Douglas," The act created two territories: Kansas, directly west of Missouri; and Nebraska, west of Iowa. The act also applied the principle of popular sovereignty, dictating that the people of these territories would decide for themselves whether to adopt slavery." (U.S. History, 14.2). Also, McLaurin does not show a strong bias. He gives the reader many different types of information so that the reader can form their own opinion. Melton McLaurin has a Ph. D. in American history from the University of South Carolina and taught at the University of South Alabama. McLaurin wanted to show the immorality and cruelty of antebellum slavery, that slavery was not strictly used for economic purposes, and he wanted to show the political aspect of slavery and how the government in slave states was run. The book could have been improved if there was more of Celia's history in it, but there is no way to change that since they did not keep slaves records back then, but overall this was a great book, and that it did a good job of showing some of the things that slaves faced back Terry 4 then. This book is recommended to anyone interested in learning more about the history of slavery other than the little bit taught in schools. Terry 5 Works Cited Corbett, P. Scott, et al. U.S. History. XanEdu, 2017. McLaurin, Melton Alonza. Celia, a Slave: a True Story. Avon Books, 1993.
