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Celia, a Slave

Written by: Melton A. McLaurin, Daina Ramey Berry - foreword, Jennifer L. Morgan - foreword
Narrated by: Mia Ellis
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Publisher's Summary

Celia was only fourteen years old when she was acquired by John Newsom, an aging widower and one of the most prosperous and respected citizens of Callaway County, Missouri. The pattern of sexual abuse that would mark their entire relationship began almost immediately. After purchasing Celia in a neighboring county, Newsom raped her on the journey back to his farm. He then established her in a small cabin near his house and visited her regularly. Over the next five years, Celia bore Newsom two children; meanwhile, she became involved with a slave named George and resolved at his insistence to end the relationship with her master. When Newsom refused, Celia one night struck him fatally with a club and disposed of his body in her fireplace.

Her act quickly discovered, Celia was brought to trial. She received a surprisingly vigorous defense from her court-appointed attorneys. Nevertheless, the court upheld the tenets of a white social order that wielded almost total control over the lives of slaves. Celia was found guilty and hanged.

Melton A. McLaurin uses Celia's story to reveal the tensions that strained the fabric of antebellum Southern society. Celia's case demonstrates how one master's abuse of power over a single slave forced whites to make moral decisions about the nature of slavery.

©1991 The University of Georgia Press (P)2022 Tantor

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Sad story and a great reminder.

The effort the author put into researching this little known case, is to be commended. It provides a glimpse into the hopeless situation many American women found themselves in, during the time of slavery, and the willingness of many to just ignore the issue as long as it maintained the power structure, and wealth of the slave owners and their communities. Its hard to justify that the states really cared about slavery, when this documented case shows how the entire legal system was aware and complacent in the victimization of Celia and the denial of the few rights she had, in the face of a warped public opinion. While this particular stain on humanity is gone, there are still many victims of the immoral majority, backed by a indifferent establishment.

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