In the book, Celia, A Slave, written by Melton McLaurin illustrates in detail the story of a female slave who murdered her master and then disposed of him by burning his body on June 23, 1855. It took place in Calloway County, Missouri during a loud period in America. In the neighboring territory of Kansas, they were in the middle of a debate to decide if it would become a slave state or a free state. McLaurin illustrates Celia’s life, the politics and society that made slavery a isolating issue, and the controversy over her fate during the 1850s in antebellum America. During the 1850s, owning slaves interpreted a persons’ level of wealth in antebellum America, and Robert Newsom was not an exception. When he purchased Celia, he had owned five other slaves. “While it is possible that Newsom harbored some moral ambiguity about slave ownership, it is far more likely that he regarded it as a fitting reward for his years of labor, an indication of the social status he achieved through his own efforts” (10). In the year of 1850, Celia was purchased at the age of fourteen by Newsom. Celia is purchased because …show more content…
Celia was hung in Calloway County, Missouri. During this time in America, it was common for people to go see the execution. Only one witness described the scene as he saw it, “Thus closed one of the most horrible tragedies ever enacted in our county” (135). Celia’s story is important because it shows the life of many slaves in America, the life of being an a African American slave woman. “The events in the last year of Celia’s life, although extraordinarily dramatic, demonstrate the nature of the moral choices individuals faced and indicate that some individuals had great difficulty making them” (143). Celia’s personal story illustrates and exposes the relationship between a slave master and slave woman, a slave man and slave woman, and being a mistress to a slave master while being a slave in antebellum
Melton McLaurin’s book Celia, A Slave is the account of the trial, conviction, and execution of a female slave for the murder of her “master” Robert Newsom in 1855. The author uses evidence compiled through studying documents from Callaway County, Missouri and the surrounding area during the middle of the Nineteenth Century. Although much of what can be determine about this event is merely speculation, McLaurin proposes arguments for the different motives that contribute to the way in which many of the events unfold. Now throughout the book the “main characters”, being Celia, her lawyer Jameson, and the judge William Hall, are all faced with moral decisions that affect the lives of two different people.
Hammond’s voice was very loud when it came to the issue of slavery. He was not ashamed to let everyone know how much he supported it. In 1831, Hammond became the owner of a cotton plantation called Silver Bluff. There were 147 slaves at Silver Bluff when Hammond arrived to take possession of it. They were eager to meet their new master. “Hammond had acquired seventy-four females and seventy-three males, a population with a median age of twenty-five. He would certainly have noted that forty-six, nearly a third of these slaves, were not yet fifteen, too young to be much use in the fields but a good foundation for a vigorous future labor force. Undoubtedly, too, he observed that sixty-four of the slaves were between fifteen and forty-five, the prime work years. These were the individuals upon whom Hammond would rely to plant, cultivate, and harvest the cotton and corn that would generate most of his yearly income” (Faust, 71). The rest were older slaves that couldn’t really do a lot of hard labor in the field, but they could do chores that didn’t require such demanding work ethics like watching over the children whose parents are out working in the fields.
Slavery is a term that can create a whirlwind of emotions for everyone. During the hardships faced by the African Americans, hundreds of accounts were documented. Harriet Jacobs, Charles Ball and Kate Drumgoold each shared their perspectives of being caught up in the world of slavery. There were reoccurring themes throughout the books as well as varying angles that each author either left out or never experienced. Taking two women’s views as well as a man’s, we can begin to delve deeper into what their everyday lives would have been like. Charles Ball’s Fifty Years in Chains and Harriet Jacobs Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl were both published in the early 1860’s while Kate Drumgoold’s A Slave Girl’s Story came almost forty years later
It is well known that slavery was a horrible event in the history of the United States. However, what isn't as well known is the actual severity of slavery. The experiences of slave women presented by Angela Davis and the theories of black women presented by Patricia Hill Collins are evident in the life of Harriet Jacobs and show the severity of slavery for black women.
In the nineteenth century, slaves were afforded very few, if any, civil rights and freedoms, often being treated very cruelly. Although the abusive treatment of slaves was not unusual, the act of a slave protecting themselves against a master was. In the book Celia, A Slave, McLaurin recounts the trial of a female slave who was charged, convicted, and later executed for the crime of murdering her master in 1855. The author provides evidence for her argument through analyzation of documents gathered from Callaway County, Missouri, and the area surrounding, during the mid-nineteenth century. As the circumstances of Celia’s case were unique, in the fact that she had violently retaliated, the debate arose as to whether she was afforded rights to
Celia, A Slave by Melton McLaurin tells a true story of a female slave who was sexually exploited by her master and the trial she faced as a result. At the young age of fourteen, Celia was brought to Callaway County under her new master, Robert Newsom. Celia later murdered Newsom, in an act of self-defense, and was placed on a trial challenging the institute of slavery and the moral beliefs of anyone involved with slavery in the South. The short life of the young Celia revealed a slave girl who had pushed beyond the ideal limit of a system that denied her humanity and threatened to erode the base of the antebellum southern society.
The issue of Slavery in the South was an unresolved issue in the United States during the seventeenth and eighteenth century. During these years, the south kept having slavery, even though most states had slavery abolished. Due to the fact that slaves were treated as inferior, they did not have the same rights and their chances of becoming an educated person were almost impossible. However, some information about slavery, from the slaves’ point of view, has been saved. In this essay, we are comparing two different books that show us what being a slave actually was. This will be seen with the help of two different characters: Linda Brent in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl and Frederick Douglass in The Narrative of the life of Frederick
To understand the desperation of wanting to obtain freedom at any cost, it is necessary to take a look into what the conditions and lives were like of slaves. It is no secret that African-American slaves received cruel and inhumane treatment. Although she wrote of the horrific afflictions experienced by slaves, Linda Brent said, “No pen can give adequate description of the all-pervading corruption produced by slavery." The life of a slave was never a satisfactory one, but it all depended on the plantation that one lived on and the mast...
In Harriet Jacobs Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, the author subjects the reader to a dystopian slave narrative based on a true story of a woman’s struggle for self-identity, self-preservation and freedom. This non-fictional personal account chronicles the journey of Harriet Jacobs (1813-1897) life of servitude and degradation in the state of North Carolina to the shackle-free promise land of liberty in the North. The reoccurring theme throughout that I strive to exploit is how the women’s sphere, known as the Cult of True Womanhood (Domesticity), is a corrupt concept that is full of white bias and privilege that has been compromised by the harsh oppression of slavery’s racial barrier. Women and the female race are falling for man’s
Envision getting no sleep because fireballs were exploding right outside the door, never imagining that the cellar in in the basement would be the next safe haven for the oncoming days. Gwen Bristow has written many books about different major historical events including the Civil War and the Gold Rush, but the interesting thing was that Gwen Bristow never lived in those times yet continued to write accurate data with a fictional plot that she created. Her most famous novel, Celia Garth, was written about the Revolutionary War from the state of South Carolina; specifically in Charleston. With the correct arrangement of key details and names, important information about the war was learned as well as the women and their roles. In Celia Garth,
It seems that Celia is long lost in love with a stranger. At least, that is what Celia’s letters connote to readers. Cristina Garcia’s Dreaming in Cuban, a novel about a dysfunctional Cuban family, demonstrates that politic views can affect family health. Although the novel focuses on politics and family relationships, Garcia’s character Celia, a main character that is in a love triangle, struggles between the past and present through her love letters because she wants Gustavo, an old lover, while she is in a relationship with Jorge, the new lover. With regards to Celia’s love letters, readers interpret the letters as a source for Celia to vent her emotions that she could not express towards her first love; however, analyzing the letters reveals that they play an important role in Dreaming in Cuban because the letters develop Celia as a character since she was an individual that likes to linger in the past, but due to the constant writing of the letters Celia learns to accept her present life.
The purpose of a slave narrative during the American abolition movement was to directly address the violent truth of slavery. But to what effect did the truth of their autobiographical stories have on readers at the time? Within this essay, I am going to explore themes such as truth, motherhood and religion, and how they interact as narrative strategies throughout. In order to support the analyses, my primary authors will be William Wells Brown, Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs 1.
Isabel’s story starts off with her and her family having barely enough food to survive. In cuba her and her family live in poverty and often have empty stomach. Her family and her neighbors team up to leave the island and hear to the US after her father was involved in a riot and the dictator, Castro, announced that there would be no punishment if citizens tried to leave Cuba. While they were at sea they faced many troubles that make getting to the US so much harder than it already was. The first trouble they faced was when they drifted off into a shipping lane. They nearly got ran over and all drowned. While they were off course they reached land. They had reached the Bahamas but they were not welcome there. They had to make a choice,
A source created on the 12th of August in 1797 depicts an advertisement for the sale of a 22 year-old female slave, who has a nine month old child and is being offered at the purchaser’s option. The primary source was published by the ‘Rising Sun’ as a newspaper clipping. African Americans were objectified as shown by the description ‘A remarkable smart healthy Negro Wench’ and families were often separated by the buyer’s wish. A case study journal by Steven Mintz from Columbia University on ‘Childhood and Transatlantic Slavery’ informed that infant and child mortality rates were twice as high among slave children compared to southern white children
Kirsten Fischer’s essay focuses on how serious slander was taken in the south and how the punishment only worsened when it was interracial. The second essay, written by Jon F. Sensbach, the Moravians of North Carolina and their relationship with slaves. Cynthia Lynn Lyerly chose in her essay to compare how the women and slaves in the Methodist Church saw God with passion to how white men to experience God in a very somber and solemn way. The fourth and final essay in the part was written by Gillespie herself. In it she speaks of Mary Musgrove, a half-Creek half-white woman in Georgia, who was a chief interpreter between England and the Creek. In contrast to the previous parts, Part Four focuses not on the Gulf when it was apart of America; but instead when it was apart of Spain and France. As outlined in all four essays, both women and slaves had greater rights than in England; but this did not entirely make them equal. In the first essay, Juana, a slave belonging to Juan Salom, is faced with charges of infanticide. Upon investigation it is discovered that she was being raped and separated from her children, both being against slavery laws, she is then placed under a less harsh punishment than being hung. The second essay turns the spotlight onto free black women and how they worked in a very limited world to better their life. In contrast, the third essay shows how both slaves and libre women (free black women) would use the law and white men to help their standing; in fact it got to the point where slave owners could no longer free their slaves in order to be with them and the Catholic Church could refuse to recognise marriages of different clas. The final essay of the entire book focuses on Louisiana and how black women affected the