ipl-logo

Celia Slave Trial Essay

1718 Words7 Pages

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. Eventually Celia had enough and decided to protect herself with a large stick. On June 23, 1855, Newsome came to Celia’s cabin and demanded sex. Celia refused, which angered him. When he went after her, she got the large stick and clubbed him to death. Although it was an accidental murder, Celia got scared and began to think about what she would do with Newsome’s dead body. She cremated his body in the fire place and hid his bones underneath the cabin. The next day a search party began, led by William Powell, who was a slave holder …show more content…

At the time Kansas was embroiled in a battle to become admitted to the Union as either a slave or free state. Anti slavery and pro slavery factions were sending people to the state to both legally and illegally influence the state. Abolitionists from New England gave money to members of an expedition of the free soil party who wanted to influence the vote in Kansas. Pro slave Missourians snuck over state lines to vote in Kansas. The residents of Missouri knew what was happening in the neighboring states. As Melton A. McLaurin states in Celia, A Slave, “Under such circumstances the slavery debates… were inevitably a part of the backdrop to Celia’s trial…” (79). Proslavery conventions, congressional debates and various publications informed Missouri citizens of the tenuous state of affairs when it came to the issue of slavery and certainly influenced the jury during Celia’s

Show More
Related

  • How Successful Was The Trial Of Celia In The 1800s

    264 Words  | 2 Pages

    Celia a 14 year old slave kills her master due to him raping her quite often in a cabin by his house. When she is put up for trial the verdict does not focus on why she killed her master but because she killed her master. This relates very much to real life. During the 1800s when a slave committed a crime that the master wanted

    Read More

  • Bleeding Kansas Dbq

    164 Words  | 1 Pages

    When Brown was 55 he moved with his sons to Kansas territory after the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 overrode the Missouri Compromise, which resulted in the strict ban of slavery above a certain latitude. This was a huge deal to both pro-slavery and anti-slavery fighters for before this act was passed the United States only consisted of twenty-two states which were divided among the two groups of fighters. Winning this territory for slavery, or for those against it, could really make a statement. During the settling of Kansas the events of violent acts that occurred during the period (1855) is referred to as “Bleeding Kansas”. Violence pursued throughout the year 1855.

    Read More

  • The Guilty And Trial Of Celia's Murder

    516 Words  | 3 Pages

    Sometime around 1820 the Newsom family moved to Callaway County located in middle Missouri. Around 1850 Robert Newsom had acquired around 800 acres of land and various lives amounts of livestock. He also owned male slaves which was common at the time. In the summer of 1850 Robert purchased another slave, a fourteen-year-old girl name Celia. Over the next five years Robert would continuously sexually assault and rape Celia.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Wilson Our Nig

    580 Words  | 3 Pages

    After the death of Thomas Jefferson, Currer (slave, Clotel mom) and her daughters were sold as slave. A man by the name of Horation Green (white man) bought Clotel and made her his common-law wife because they couldn’t marry by law. Clotel’s mother and sisters were still in slavery. After a while Currer was bought by a man name Peck, he was preacher. She passed away days before Pecks daughter was preparing to free her.

    Read More

  • Differences Between Lincoln And Frederick Douglass

    691 Words  | 3 Pages

    Abraham Lincoln, Frederic Douglass, were one of the most appealing well-known speakers, people who did believe that slavery was morally wrong and devote their lives to fight for freedom. However, there are several differences between the view of the Constitution’s position differences between Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. Kansas-Nebraska Act indicated that the recognition of slavery should be determined by the decision of these residents (popular or squatter sovereignty). This act itself conflicted heavily with the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional, which was essentially seen as the admittance of slavery anywhere in the country. This act made a political issue of confrontation between North and South.

    Read More

  • Anti Slavery Dbq Essay

    665 Words  | 3 Pages

    Slavery will always have a negative connotation attached to it but there are underlying forces and events that caused a certain kind of resistance against slavery beginning with The Second Great Awakening, it’s emphasis on reform leading women to speak out, important people who advocated and supported anti-slavery and the colonization of slaves creating little independence for blacks and more opposition of slavery in the U.S. The Second Great Awakening is said to be a starting point to the abolishment of slavery. Due to the fact that this awakening was about religion, it really emphasized the reason why slavery was considered a sin. This reform movement ties into Angelina Grimké’s “Appeal to the Christian Women of the South” (doc f) because

    Read More

  • Celia Slave

    1753 Words  | 8 Pages

    Whether they wished to assist Celia or not, Newsom’s husbandless daughters were utterly dependent upon their father (McLaurin, 32), a fact that made confronting him dangerous. The importance of this master-slave structure in Southern life, as well as the value of slavery itself, may explain the actions of the Judge presiding over Celia’s trial. By choosing to sustain the objections of the prosecution, Judge William Hall sealed the fate of Celia the slave. Had he acted against the established institution, Celia might have been spared. He chose instead to protect it, probably guided by the

    Read More

  • Frederick Douglass Abolitionist Essay

    1086 Words  | 5 Pages

    Rough Draft of Frederick Douglass paper Ratification of the Thirteen Amendment abolished the slavery throughout the United States. Abolitionist movement played a huge part in abolishing slavery to its core. Abolitionist like Frederick Douglass, WM. Lloyd Garrison and Wendell Phillips were part of the abolitionist movement; among these abolitionist Frederick Douglass stands out the most because he was born as a slave, he had experienced the slavery, and despite being a slave he taught himself how to read and write.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl By Harriet A. Jacobs

    275 Words  | 2 Pages

    Hello, I am Nina, in today’s Ted Talk I am going to talk about “The connection between harassment of slave women and nowadays Chilean girls”. During the course I have learned from the book “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” by Harriet A. Jacobs, how women, especially black slaves, have suffered from violence not just physical but psychological. Harassment from white masters in the 19th century towards theirs slaves was common and it was part of their society. Their white wives knew that as well as black women, they were at the mercy of the white patriarchal system, in which white men had complete control over them.

    Read More

  • Frederick Douglass Argumentative Essay

    460 Words  | 2 Pages

    After being separated from his mother at a young age, Frederick Douglass fights back against slavery and human rights. In Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, the author, Frederick Douglass, uses powerful rhetoric to disprove the Pragmatic and the Scientific pro-slavery arguments of Pre-Civil War America. The Pragmatic Argument is about how many people believe that if all black slaves were to be freed, then this would result in convulsions which would then lead to extermination of the one or other race. Many people also believed that black slavery was necessary for American history.

    Read More

  • Essay On State Vs Mayfield Trial

    853 Words  | 4 Pages

    “But the evidence will show he directed her off the highway to a dark, secluded where he strangled her with a rope and threw her body off a bridge.” Desloup stated (pg 1). As stated in the case, the murder weapon was a rope, as she died because of strangulation. After the murder,

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On Slavery

    927 Words  | 4 Pages

    Slavery through the eyes of activists On December fifteenth, in eighteen sixty-five, the United States abolished slavery with the thirteenth amendment. Powerful individuals such as Frederick Douglass, David Walker, Nat Turner, Sojourner Truth, and Benjamin Banneker were people that longed to see the day that they would be free from slavery. Although these five individuals were never in contact with one another they all shared the same drive and motivation to change the way people viewed slavery for the better. These individuals accomplished their goal of changing slavery with a strong belief in god, a strong political voice and a light in them that never died.

    Read More

  • Celia A Slave Case

    920 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Slave Narrative Essay: Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl

    328 Words  | 2 Pages

    Slave Narrative Essay Most slaves brought to America from Africa were purchased from black slave owners. In “Twelve Years a Slave” by Solomon Northup, “Incidents in the life of a Slave Girl” by Harriet Jacobs and “A Slave auction in New Orleans” by Horace Greeley describe the horrors slaves forced. Northup, Jacob's and Greely, describe the inhumanity and cruelty of slavery. For example, in “Twelve years a Slave”, Northup describes how cruel he is Treated.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl By Harriet Jacobs

    448 Words  | 2 Pages

    These two books are compelling works of African American Slavery. Both authors have an autobiographical experience of two different formal slaves scenarios. Despite the fact we all have a concept of African American Slavery both narrators go into many aspects concerning the brutality of slavery in many feminist. Harriet’s acts shows the evils of slavery as being worse in a woman’s case by the gender. As to Twain’s fulfilling roles into the same category showing women prisoners of the slavery.

    Read More

More about Celia Slave Trial Essay

Open Document