How did events in Missouri and the nation as a whole affect Celia’s trial? In 1850, Robert Newsom, a prosperous and respected farmer in Missouri, acquired Celia, a fourteen-year-old black girl. The state of Missouri allowed acquisition and ownership of property and slaves to their settlers since it was a slave state. Celia became the property of Newsom and, for the next five years, she was repeatedly and cruelly abused by her master. In the course of this abuse, which included sexual abuse, she bore him two children against her will. In 1855, her endurance was driven to the limit and she decided to fight back (McLaurin, 1991). She thus took a club and hit her master on the head. However, the damage to his head got out of control, and her master …show more content…
Whenever a man acquired more slaves, the amount of his wealth increased, and so did his social status. This led to Newsom, having slaves to add value to his social status. Most of his slaves worked on his farm and around the household. Among his slaves was Celia, who he made a sex slave, but to avoid a scandal, she also cooked and cleaned for him (McLaurin, 1991). Making her fulfill his sexual pleasures denied Celia control over her life. Just like other masters, Newsom believed that sex with Celia was a deserved privilege. He thus did not feel the need to get her consent before forcing her into sexual relations. This caused the feeling of helplessness for Celia, which later led to intolerance, leading her to killing her …show more content…
The aspect of racism was so intense that black lives did not matter. This is seen by the powerlessness experienced by Celia when she asked her master to stop having sex with her against her will. When he refused, she struck him with a club, and, when the blow became fatal, she was terrified and buried him at the fireplace (McLaurin, 1991). Upon discovery of the crime, she was brought to trial. If Celia was enslaved in another country in the East, her chances for a better trial could have been higher. This is because, unlike Missouri, other countries had a support system for slave women. She was thus accused for murder, and the aspect of self defense was dismissed. If she was a white woman, the case would have been looked at differently. For instance, according to Rutherdale and Pickles (2014), Sankey, a woman, was tried twice and released after her appeal after being accused and arrested for the murder of Chisholm, a man in 1904. However, Celia’s request for appeal was denied since she was a black
Talitha L. Leflouria discusses and describes her Grandma Leola of Troup County, Georgia. Initially, Leflouria informs the reader that she would spend most of Saturdays at her great-grandparents home. Grandma Leola was renowned for efficiencies at various skills related to traditional country living in the South during the 20th century. She also describes her mother as someone that was loving, inviting, and rugged around the edges too. Grandma Leola would share stories to Leflouria about her life, and sometimes she would even tell her about life in the Rough Edge.
When the slave Fugitive laws were passed many runaway slaves went running to the northern states such as Iowa in search for a hiding job, to avoid recapture. Many Runaway slaves killed their masters and their family to try to cut off as many strings of following as possible. Such as Celia did, But was eventually caught and prosecuted. At the point in time of 1800s slaves murdering their masters were not uncommon.
The court case lasted four weeks and it was a very long and very complicated court case for a slave to go through. A normal slave case for fugitive slaves would have lasted less than a day. They let her go with her slave owner and they couldn’t find her to arrest her. Her owner kept moving her place to place so they couldn’t find her and arrest her. Eventually, her owner put her on, a boat to go where his brother lived in Arkansas.
In Fredrick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs narrative they show how the institution of slavery dehumanizes an individual both physically and emotionally. In Jacobs narrative she talks about how women had it worse than men did in slavery. While men suffered, women had it worse due to sexual abuse. The emotional, physical, and sexual abuse was dehumanizing for anyone.
William Wells Brown Clotel; Harriet. Wilson Our Nig Journal Essay 1 Topic: Compare and contrast the two slave narratives. In the book of Wilson Our Nig it is about a lady by the name of Mag Smith who was seduced and left with a child.
I could only imagine how crushed she must have felt… she was in the position she was in because of him, he was the reason that she killed her owner, then he just gives her up? After being questioned no one believes that Celia could have committed the murder by herself. They are convinced that someone else had to have helped her burn the body. Celia was soon arrested and sent to Calloway jail to wait for her trial in October, even after being arrested she was still being interrogated to see if she would lie and say that she had help in the murder of her owner. John Jameson was Celia’s defendant, he was a Christian man, meaning that he would be more compassionate.
Keep living. Until the land, or God, told her why.” (McBride???). The history of slavery is neither black nor white, but gray.
In the novel, “To Kill A Mockingbird”, Harper Lee categorizes power using class, race and gender. Mayella Ewell, living in Maycomb, Alabama, starts allegations that Tom, a poor-Negro man of rape. Living in the South during the 1930s could have been difficult but Mayella, a white women can make it. (“DBQ is Mayella Ewell powerful?” 19) states “-that all Negroes lie, that all Negroes are basically immoral beings, that all Negro men are not to be trusted around are women….”, meaning she will most likely win the trial because of her race.
With “freedom….the Negro was not only whipped and scourged; he was killed (75),” this was because with the little freedom that blacks had, the white man did not want to take a chance at anything. A black man’s punishment was far more horrible than a white man being punished for the same exact
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
African Americans were dehumanized and treated so horrible, that it made them feel that life wasn’t worth living. The film 12 years of slave shows example of the theme when patsy ask Northrup for a favor. Patsy tells Northrup that she is tired of all the treatment and wants him to do a favor for her by drowning her in the lake. She tells Northrup that she would rather die. Patsy picks 500 pounds of cotton every day, and she was still whipped, and was beaten.
White men had more power than white women, but blacks had no power at all. He says that Celia’s story was important in showing how blacks were lesser people, but not all situations were handled the same as hers. The book begins
Slaveholders would likely have been forced by law to treat their slaves well. However, the supremacy of white people over black people was a privilege that slave owners would refuse to give up. Thus, Celia was condemned to die, regardless of whether she was actually
Injustice The Scottsboro Case shed light on the racial practices expressed in law that made a great impact on the legal system today. The actual victims of the Case did not receive a fair trial due to the color of their skin. The ones who played the victims planned the crime, and their stories made no sense. But like many of the trials during the time it wasn’t based on the actual evidence that was found,or even the defendants ' stories.
Running From Slavery Imagine being stripped away from your family, being bought by a stranger, and be expected to participate in forced labor for the rest of your life. This is what Kunta Kinte and Frederick Douglass had experienced in their life. Roots was a book written by Alex Haley, a descendant of Kunta Kinte. Roots was later made into a mini television series that depicted Kunta Kinte’s journey from living in his village Juffure, near the Gambia River in Africa, to being caught by slave catchers and sold into slavery. The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass was written by Douglass himself after escaping to the North to show people what life as a slave was really like.