Celia, A Slave by Melton A. McLaurin is based on true historical events. It is a book about the many challenges slave women had to endure and the effects proslavery had on the conscience and people of the time. Their possible feelings of helplessness, being treated poorly, unfairly and having no rights as a human being. These events took place in the south during a time when slavery was at its peak and was in the process of expanding slavery to neighboring states who in contrast were against slavery. McLaurin discussed a few key issues of the way of life in southern America was, the good and the bad. Main ones being that of slave women's rights were nonexistent, they were simply helpless in being able to defend themselves without deadly repercussions, …show more content…
Celia was repeatedly raped by her master and resulted in her giving birth twice furthermore resulting in her current pregnancy in which resulted in a stillbirth. When the murder on June 23rd, 1855 happened, Celia was caught, confessed and indicted. Her defense attorney tried with all his power to get her a fair trial but the odds were against her, being Missouri was a proslavery state and her being a slave. The judge presiding the case would not cooperate and rejected every instruction in her defense. Her defense attorney exhausted every attempt in his power but it held no weight in court. Celia was executed at the age of 19 on December 21st at 2:30 …show more content…
That was the typical lifestyle of Southerners, most lived on plantations and owned several slaves. Women slaves were bought mostly working in the house, taking care of the kids and men were for hard labor and tending the farm. Celia was a slave girl who was sold and bought at the age of fourteen by a farmer named Robert Newsome, who lived in Callaway County, Missouri in 1850. Little to no information is known about Celia before she was purchased by Newsome, there are no records. On their travel, back to the plantation Newson, raped Celia and in that was how he established his relationship with her. She was a slave and had to obey her owner or risk getting killed on the spot for resisting or fighting back. After the years of rape from her owner currently pregnant, Celia accidentally killed her him as result of pressure from her boyfriend George who was also a slave of Newsome's as well. Fear of being caught she burned his body to ashes, people got suspicious of his disappearance, neighbors questioned her and she
Racism still existed and they were still treated as slaves. Some drank too much and were abusive to their families because they were afraid. Like the slaves Papa had no money, job or home to go back to once the war was over. Papa started drinking heavily, was angry all the time and was very abusive to his family.
Have you ever read a book and wondered how accurate it actually was to the historical events that took place? In Celia Garth there were a tremendous amount of historical events and people that were in this novel. People were alive with struggles with the availability of food. The people in the novel are also people that were involved in the American Revolutionary War. The war in the books are accurate, as well as the food situation and people on a historical level.
The trial judge tried to be seen as being impartial by allowing Celia to access the best defense attorneys available and allowing the case to be determined by a jury. The defense comprised of three defense attorneys who were never known to hold any strong opinion on the matter of slavery though they were very good in research. In the defense of the case the attorneys wanted to prove the motive of the murder rather than try to claim innocence in the case. They knew Celia stood a chance to be acquitted or get a lenient sentence if they played to the sympathy of the jurist and the judge over her sexual harassment under her
Finally, on June 23, 1855 Celia killed Robert in self-defense after he tried to rape her again. On October 10, 1855 a jury found Celia guilty of murder in the first degree and was eventually hung on December 21, 1855. Within the investigation and trial of Celia there are several things that made her trial unjust and therefore warrant her pardon.
She said, “You have my sympathy, Miss Garth (Bristow 252).” Celia is still respectful and loving towards Mrs. Thorley even though, she is not her favorite
A slave owner from Callaway County, Missouri named Robert Newsome bought a fourteen-year-old slave named Celia. Shortly after the purchase he raped her and would continue to do it for five years. Celia gave birth to two children over time because of these actions. She actually was in love with another slave whose name was George. George wanted her to stop having sex with Newsome and threatened to leave her.
During the Antebellum period, the southern United States was an agricultural based society built on the exhausting labor of approximately 4 million African American slaves. Antebellum in Latin means “before the war” and in historical terms, Antebellum used to describe the period of time before the Civil War and after the War of 1812. Slaves during this time frame were considered property and little to no legal rights. Slaves were a vital part for the southern economy yet put through the most hardship. Apart from the grueling labor the slaves had to perform, the slaveholders made things more difficult by mistreating and abusing the slaves, separating them from their families, and by depriving slaves of their legal rights.
Woman in colonial America were short in number and therefor highly valued. Living conditions for them were not great as well. There was no heat, no running water, they had no toilets, and lighting was dim. If they wanted to go somewhere it was rough because there were no roads. Living conditions were generally dirty and therefor sickness was a normal thing.
Her name was Celia, and she was a slave. Her master, Robert Newsom, was an old and prosperous fellow by the time he purchased her. In almost every way, Newsom embodied the ideal “yeoman farmer” that Thomas Jefferson envisioned during his presidency (Lecture, History 250, 10-7-2015): he was hardworking, self-sustaining, and self-made. Despite Newsom’s “respectability”, the young slave Celia quickly became a victim of one of the ugliest blights in American history: the systematic abuse of black women for sexual pleasure (McLaurin, 24 & 137). Like many prosperous men of the time, Newsom was not simply self-made, but slave-made.
In the book Ar’n’t I a women the author, Deborah Gray White, explains how the life was for the slave women in the Southern plantations. She reveals to us how the slave women had to deal with difficulties of racism as well as dealing with sexism. Slave women in these plantations assumed roles within the family as well as the community; these roles were completely different to the roles given to a traditional white female. Deborah Gray White shows us how black women had a different experience from the black men and the struggle they had to maintain their sense of womanhood against all odds, resist sexual oppression, and keep their families together. In the book the author describes two different types of women, “Jezebel” and “Mammy” they
Whenever a man acquired more slaves, the amount of his wealth increased, and so did his social status. This led to Newsom, having slaves to add value to his social status. Most of his slaves worked on his farm and around the household. Among his slaves was Celia, who he made a sex slave, but to avoid a scandal, she also cooked and cleaned for him (McLaurin, 1991). Making her fulfill his sexual pleasures denied Celia control over her life.
One of the most difficult situations to face in life is a moral dilemma. This is exactly what was encountered by slaveholders and plain folk alike concerning the trial of Celia, a slave during the 1850s. The moral ambiguity of slavery is addressed in Celia, A Slave, especially as the sexual aspect of Celia’s case called people to contemplate whether it was moral to mistreat slaves. When Celia had been sexually abused and mistreated by her master, she lashed out and killed him. From the perspective of the 1850s, her master, Robert Newsom, had not committed a crime, whereas Celia had perpetrated a crime deserving of the death penalty.
Harper Lee and Tate Taylor contend that those who do not fit into society are misunderstood and often have different realities. To Kill a Mockingbird is set in 1935 in Maycomb, a Southern American town where everyone attends church and socialises with people within their social hierarchy. However, the Radleys isolate themselves from Maycomb by not going to church and worshipping at home. Furthermore, the Radley’s house doors and shutters are always closed, which is “another thing alien to Maycomb’s ways.” As a result, the Radley’s do not fit into Maycomb societal standards.
“Let’s stop believing that our differences make us superior or inferior to one another”- Don Miguel Ruiz. The novel “The Help” by Kathryn Stockett is a controversial and heart wrenching story. It depicts the cruel brutality and inequality that many faced during the 1960’s. Stockett teaches the readers about how discrimination between races was inevitable and planted in everyday life through Aibileen’s life story, Hilly’s sense of superiority, and Celia’s innocent presence. Aibileen, the main protagonist of The Help, drives this book to such great lengths.
They controlled what the woman was able to do, how the woman was seen. Any rights that a woman had was mostly due to inheritance. The main method of women gaining any sort of power was through their sons, especially when the husband died. The husband had to put into writing what specifically the woman would own or it would