Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States, once said, “I prefer dangerous freedom over peaceful slavery.” Jefferson was trying to say that slavery brought chaos to the people of America and that it should be stopped from spreading any further. In the 19-century before the Civil War, slavery has been a major dispute in the United States of America. In the book Celia, A Slave, by Melton A. McLaurin, is a riveting true story about a fourteen year old slave, named Celia, who murdered her slave owner because of all the mistreating she experienced. Celia’s life as an African American slave was so much different compared to the men because women slaves were not just about having to do work for their masters, but also they were …show more content…
Slavery was very important amongst the people, most especially in the south, because not only does it help them with their businesses and household tasks, but also it determined “a mark of social position.” (9) Robert Newman, a Missourian farmer, was no exception in the indication of the social status. He purchased five slaves: four adult males and a five-year-old boy, for the main purpose of labor in his farm. Soon after, he purchased Celia, a fourteen year old girl from the neighboring county. Newman’s sole purpose of acquiring Celia was to help with the domestic chores and for the sake of his sexual pleasures in replacement of his deceased wife, as McLaurin mentioned, “A healthy sixty years of age, Newsom needed more than a hostess…he required a sexual partner.” (18) He would then later begin to regularly visit Celia’s cabin to sexually assault her. Soon, Celia had enough of Newman’s sexual abuse and decided to have an end to all of the mistreatment. On Saturday, June 23, 1855, Celia has murdered her master with a large stick followed by burning him in the fireplace. Her crime resulted in for a trial to take
The female slave had two attributes working against her. She was both a slave and a woman. As a slave, she was considered property and an object. She had no rights
The book Celia, a slave, was written by Melton McLaurin to show the horrors of slavery in America during the slavery periods and thus, provide insight into the dark times of the slavery encouraging America of the time. In the book McLaurin expertly explores the topic of sexual exploitation of slaves by narrating the case of Celia, a slave that was convicted of the murder of her owner. Celia was only fourteen years old when she was bought as a slave for her owner who at the time had five other slaves. At the time owning of slaves was the apex of wealth, and her owner who happened to be rich by the standards of the time could afford to have five slaves. Robert Newsom, who bought Celia, started sexually abusing her on the day she was purchased
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.
Melton McLaurin’s book Celia, A Slave, addresses the moral dilemma in the United States during the 1850’s about the heated debate over slavery. Celia, a Slave is a true story about the trial, conviction and hanging execution of a young female slave for the murder of her master. Celia, a slave, faced daily sexual exploitations at the hands of her master which started at the tender age of fourteen, and ultimately ended when she murdered him. The conditions surrounding Celia’s life exemplify the certainties of slave life in the South and moral choices the institution of slavery forced upon slaves and slaveholders. The course and result of Celia's trial were affected by people and a court framework that were attempting to accommodate the individual
In the book Celia Garth by Gwen Bristow, there is an adolescent girl who is battling a “normal life” every teenager is supposedly suppose to live and trying to stay alive while the Revolutionary War is happening. During trying to balance these two aspects of her life she goes through many obstacles, between losing her fiancé, Jimmy, and spying for her new lover Luke. Celia shows attributes for being a exquisite role model, from keeping her faith throughout the book, to being respectful and loving to all the people that came into her life, and being and staying humble. Throughout the hardships and twists of the war, Celia still remained intact with her religion and love for God.
Many minority groups were vulnerable to enslavement placed upon them by white Americans throughout the 19th century. In the episodic autobiographies Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass, An American Slave written by Fredrick Douglass and Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl written by Harriet Jacobs, both authors present the physiological manipulations associated with slavery. Douglass's and Jacob’s experiences suggest that slaves endured a continuous treatment of brutality, loneliness, and sexual abuse. Slave-owners deprived slaves of positive human qualities because they (slave-owners) became divested from their sense of identity. The dehumanizing institution of slavery caused slave-owners to conform to social roles instituted by society and forced slaves to suffer from learned hopelessness.
The book ‘Celia a Slave’ is primarily about how unfair and inhumane slaves were treated in the early 1800’s. Melton McLaurin describes what is known about the life of Celia from when she arrived at the Newsome household until the day she was hung. Celia was only fourteen years old when Robert Newsome bought her. Newsome had recently lost his wife, but he had 2 daughters living with him that took care of the house chores and such, so what was Celia needed for? Celia was bought for one reason only, to be Robert Newsome’s sex slave.
This fact does not vindicate those who condemned her – the existence of a dynamic defense in her favor shows that original thoughts were not unheard of – but it does help explain what might otherwise seem a series of inexplicably cruel, inauspicious events. The institution of slavery was responsible for young Celia’s tragic end, and hers was just one tragedy of the many that make up slavery’s long
Slaves were treated with the lowest of respect, and had no form of justice or rights. The slave system during the time that Frederic Douglass was a slave was corrupted, and he made that very clear within his narrative. In Douglass’ narrative we are shown how little rights the slaves
Wendell Berry’s poem, "My Great-Grandfather’s Slaves”, details his emotional enslavement to and relentless guilt about his great-grandfather’s slaves. He is extremely remorseful because his own family owned and mistreated other people. Berry feels personally connected to and responsible for the slaves. His shame is evident through his usage of literary devices like metaphors, irony, repetition, and juxtaposition. Berry’s powerful poem captures his true shame and emotional turmoil.
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.
After escaping slavery and seeking freedom in the North, former slaves would often write their testimonies of the cruel life on the southern plantations. One of the best and most recognizable examples of this genre is “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave” whose author, Frederick Douglas, became an important figure not only in literature but also in history of fighting for civil rights. He was born into slavery and raised by the grandparents because his mother was assigned to work in a field far away and was not allowed to stay with her son. Life at the plantation was full of abuse and cruelty, which he could witness from a young age by seeing his aunt being whipped. He described slaves’ fear of their masters that often took pleasure in punishing and whipping their property; the hardships of fieldwork where blacks would work all day with only few breaks for meals or how the owners were impregnating black women in order for them to produce more, free laborers.
On day on January 1,1863, Susie King Taylor was with many people who heared a performance of President Lincoln enslaving all people in U.S.A. As womans who clean cloths, “the First South Carolina Volunteers, Union Army troops that” created parties, “she won a great deal in common with “her” soldiers”. Susie’s life, 14 years old Susie was a new freed slave having fun once in a lifetime moment. “She spent her days washing cloths, comforting the wounded and the sick, and teaching both adults and children to read and write, all without getting paid. which, she recognized as being good or important, it would be good if she got paid”, ( black past ) “Susie baker king taylor was born on the Grest Farm in Liberty County, Georgia, on August 6, 1848, she was raised as an enslaved person.”
“Where slavery is, there liberty cannot be; and where liberty is, there slavery cannot be”(Abraham Lincoln). The publication of the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass(1845) by Frederick Douglass is a looking glass into the life a slave. Still to this day, it is used as a source against the institution of slavery. The purpose of the narrative is to persuade readers that slavery needs to be ended and to help abolitionists achieve this goal. Slavery is demeaning and not only has a negative effect on slaves, it has a negative effect on slaveholders as well.
In the short story “Celia Behind Me, ” Isabel Huggan emphasizes that pressure at “the brink of being laughed at” or “teased” can impact a young girl, and turn her into a “vicious bitch,” in adolescence. Elizabeth struggles with her own insecurity and position among the “amorphous Other Kids” by getting away from Celia a “diabetic child.” Through the use of characterization and archetypes of teenagers, Huggan establishes that the striving for acceptance and the fear of “humiliation” reveals a “darkness” in all of us. Elizabeth describes Celia as a “chubby”, “stupid child” with “large smooth cheeks” who “won't live forever.”