The slave Celia, who had no right to resist

December 21st, 2008 Caitlin GD Hopkins

From the first day, Newsom treated Celia as his concubine. Testimony given before the Missouri Supreme Court in 1855 indicates that Newsom raped Celia for the first time on the journey home from the slave market. He installed her in a small cabin behind his house, where he continued to rape her on a regular basis over the next five years. During that time, she gave birth to two children.

In the spring of 1855, Celia began a relationship with George, another slave on the farm, and soon discovered that she was pregnant again. At George’s urging, Celia approached Newsom’s daughters and pled with them to protect her from their father during her pregnancy. The oldest daughter, Mary, later testified that Celia had threatened to hurt Newsom if he came to her cabin again, but there is no evidence that either she or her sister intervened.

On the night of June 23, 1855, Robert Newsom went to Celia’s cabin, no doubt intent on raping her yet again. He never returned to his own home.

Although Celia was never allowed to testify in her own defense, investigators reconstructed the events of the night through a combination of physical evidence and Celia’s confession. Fearful of Newsom, Celia had hidden a hefty stick in a corner of her cabin. When Newsom attacked her that night, Celia retrieved her weapon and beat him to death with it. She then dismembered the body and burned it to ashes in her fireplace. The next morning, Celia offered Newsom’s eleven-year-old grandson two dozen walnuts in exchange for his help cleaning out the fireplace and spreading the ashes in the yard.

The jury that convicted Celia of murder accepted her confession as fact, but some elements of her tale do not ring true. As Melton McLaurin observes in his book, Celia, A Slave, the task of cutting enough wood and tending the roaring fire necessary to consume a human corpse in a single night “would have taxed the strength of a healthy woman, and Celia was pregnant and sick” (McLaurin, 49). McLaurin implies that George either helped Celia or was primarily responsible for Newsom’s demise and that Celia may have lied to protect him. George disappeared shortly after the murder and was never arrested or charged.

McLaurin, Melton A. Celia, a Slave: A True Story. (University of Georgia Press, 1991). Google Books preview

Gordon-Reed, Annette, ed. Race on Trial: Law and Justice in American History. (Oxford University Press, 2002). Google Books preview.
African-American History – Mrs. Bedford-Carter

The Sexual Exploitation/Objectification of Black Women during slavery and today

• 
  Her death – did she die with dignity? 1974 – the display was removed; 2002 – given a proper burial in her country
  
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  The first video vixen – was this the blue print for degrading black women on a worldwide level?
  
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  Why is she accusing America for murdering the Black woman? Is this accurate?
  
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  Are some black women today disgracing the memories of Harriet Tubman, Sojourner truth and Sarah Baartman?
  
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  Dignity – where is it?
  
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  Why do Black women degrade themselves today? Do they really want to be saved?
  
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  “Wake up Black women, Wake up black America, Take back your dignity – the power is in your hands.”
  

Is the power solely in the hands of Black women?

Read the handout on The slave Celia, who had no right to resist. Is this a Black woman taking back her dignity? What cost did she ultimately pay?