Celia, A Slave...

CELIA, A SLAVE. A MIRROR TO SLAVERY AND INJUSTICE?

A critical overview

Celia, a Slave was a factual interpretation of one isolated incident that depicted common slave fear during the antebellum period of the United States. Melton A. McLaurin, the author, used this account of a young slave woman's struggle through the undeserved hardships of rape and injustice to explain to today's naive society a better depiction of what slavery could have been like. The story of Celia illustrates the root of racial problems Americans still face in their society. Although not nearly as extreme, they continue to live in a white-male dominated culture that looks down upon African-Americans, especially females. McLaurin looks at the views of the time, and speculates the probabilities of this pre - Civil War era, the values of which still pierce daily life in the United States.

"The American constitution recognized slavery as a local constitution within the legal rights of the individual states. But in the North slavery was not adaptable to the local economy, and to many, it contradicted the vision of the founding fathers for a nation in which all men are to be free. The South considered slavery as a necessary institution for the plantation economy. It was linked to the local culture and society. As the United states expanded, the North worried that the South would introduce slavery into the new territories. Slavery had become both a moral issue and a question of political power." (Kral p61)

This account of enduring adversity begins with a man by the name of Robert Newsom. After his wife passed away he apparently craved the need for sexual fulfillment. He came to the conclusion that the best possible way to nourish his craving was by purchasing a young, healthy slave to keep as his personal "mistress". So at the age of 14, Celia became a white-man's sexual object. Over time Celia accepted her role in the Newsom household and bore two of Newsom's children. Towards the end of her five years at the Newsom farm she began a personal romance with another slave by the name of George. Finally, George's masculine pride erupted and he demanded that Celia end this sexual relationship with Newsom. Celia went to Newsom in an effort to stop the nature of their affair, but was unsuccessful in doing so. Out of desperation it is believed that Celia even went to Newsom's two daughters, Virginia and Mary, who still lived with their father, to plead protection from him and his enforced sexual interactions, with no luck once again. As a last resort Celia threatened Newsom's life in order to preserve her love for George. Newsom, despite Celia's threats, came to her cabin one night. Celia was prepared for this to occur and she had stashed away a large stick. When Newsom came to the cabin, she retrieved the stick and hit Newsom upon the head, which knocked him out. The first account of the murder states that Newsom was grabbing for her and she hit him once more out of fear, which then killed him. The second account, and the more likely of the two, was, "as soon as I struck him the Devil got into me, and I struck him with the stick until he was dead, then rolled him in the fire and burnt him up" (McLaurin, p135). As the second account reveals, she disposed of the body by placing it in the fireplace and burning it as much as possible. It didn't take long for the Newsom family to realize the absence of the family patriarch, and search for him began. When no body was discovered, the search party reverted to the slaves, and it didn't take long for Celia to confess the crime. The entire situation unfolded extremely quickly. Then came the extensive legal process, which definitely did not go without prejudice, fear or fairness for that matter. First, according to law everybody in the States has the right to defend himself in front of a jury of his/her fellow mates. That would have meant Celia having been able to have a trial in front of a jury of black, slave women, who in turn would probably have justified her deed. The other great misfortune of her's was fear. Fear of white's, not only males, but females too, a fear so intense they had not even mentioned Newsom's multiple accounts of rape the last result of which Celia had been carrying. This happened because black people were treated and thought of as property, and nothing more. This phycologically helped the Atlantic slave-trade and liberated white slaveholders of crimes against them. Had they have acknowledged the act of rape against Celia, they would have had to recognize that blacks are also people, and that would have caused a moral crisis on many levels in a white patriarchal society. The process resulted in a very predictable verdict of guilty. Celia was sentenced to death and was then hung one December day after giving birth to her third child, who had been still-born.

McLaurin shows how this perverted overbearing act of rape can be turned around and made seem as though it was just. In this time period the views were very skewed as explained above. After the Civil War was when misconceptions and notions began to change. Though the change was slow to occur, it eventually began to work its way through