Jingjing Liu
History 7A
10/15/2020
The link between Celia, A Slave the book and the document interpretations covered in the course
Celia, A Slave, is a book that narrates and illustrates the story of an enslaved young woman called Celia. The book paints a picture of the events that took place in her life from the time that Robert Newsom acquired her as a replacement for his deceased wife to the instance that she gets executed for murdering her master. In addition to Celia’s story, the book gives information regarding the socio-political situation of the country in that era. Robert Newsom had moved with his family from Virginia to Missouri because Missouri was a slave state, and therefore, he would be free to own slaves. Following their move, Newsom acquired a fourteen-year-old slave know as Celia and sexually exploited her from the very first day on their way from Audrain county to Callaway. Throughout her period as Newsom’s slave, he repeatedly abused her sexually, and she ended up having two children. When Celia was trying to end her abuse, she approached Robert’s daughters for help, but they could not help her, and so the abuse continued until she struck him one day and ended up killing him as a result of the pressure that her lover, George, was exulting on her to put an end to the situation.
Celia’s story has some relationship with the other sources of information that we have gone through since they illustrated the troubles slaves were faced with and the struggles that they went through to regain their freedom. For instance, through Olaudah Equiano’s account in the “Interesting Narrative” we gain insight into the world of slaves and their plight, particularly during their journey from Africa to America. It is evident that they were not valued as human beings but as commodities, and therefore they were packed into small spaces, physically abused, and they were starved despite the fact that there was enough food to the extent that the slave masters were throwing away the food that they could not consume. This inhumane treatment scarred them to the extent that the trauma left them feeling that death was better than life as a slave. This situation is similar to Celia’s since she was constantly abused, and her abuse caused her distress to the extent that she was driven to kill Robert Newsom. Equiano’s account helped to not only create awareness but also to campaign against the inhumane treatment that the slaves were receiving.
The “Slaves Petition for Freedom” was another document that we analyzed that correlates to Celia’s story. In 1776, after the Declaration of Independence was signed, a group of slaves petitioned the Massachusetts Legislature for their freedom since the declaration stated that everyone was equal and free. The slaves described the inhumane treatment that they were being subjected to, and they used the declaration as a point of reference to point out the hypocrisy in the treatment that the slaves were receiving. However, in Celia’s case, she was fortunate enough to be accorded a trial, but evidently, her trial was a sham because her trail was marred with irregularities. For instance, the jury was made up of white males who were involved in slavery, and thus they were evidently biased against the slave. Additionally, the increasing tensions regarding slavery between the North and the South. McLaurin stated that the people expected that the proslavery residents of Missouri expected that Celia would receive the highest form of punishment for her crime while the other side expected the court to be fair (Mclaurin,61). The horrible Nat Turner rebellion that had taken place was still fresh in the mind of the southerners’ minds, and this strongly pivoted the jury against freeing her.
The southerner’s primary depended on slavery as their main source of labor since the slaves provided cheap labor. However, the North was more industrialized and had an increased number of immigrants that was providing the necessary workforce, but because of their different stance on slavery, there was tension between the two regions, and the Wilmot Proviso debate increased the tensions even after the 1850 compromise that was passed which also included the Fugitive Slave Act that would force the northerners to return the slaves back to the South. After the Missouri compromise of 1820 was repealed, this meant that the Kansas-Nebraska Act would be enforced and would enforce the popular sovereignty that would give states the freedom to choose the stance that they would take regarding slavery, and this seemed to appease both sides.
When Lincoln was elected as president, the southerners felt that would be negatively impacted since the Republicans had made a promise to keep the western territories free, which meant that eleven states would be seceded and caused the Civil War. In my opinion, Celia’s trial was also evidently affected by the confusion that was still going on, and this meant that the stance of the South greatly affected her trial. It is possible that if she has been tried in the North, the outcome would have been different.
Work Cited
Equiano, O. (1789) The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano. The Middle Passage, Great Britain Retrieved from http://www.brycchancarey.com/equiano/extract3.htm
McLaurin, M. (1991). Celia, a slave. University of Georgia Press, Athens, Georgia
Natural and Inalienable Right to Freedom”: Slaves’ Petition for Freedom to the Massachusetts Legislature, 1777 Retrieved from http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6237/
OpenStax U.S. History.