Rape In Celia, A Slave, By Melton Mclaurin

867 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Abolitionists and Civil Rights

Celia’s remarkable and fascinating account illustrates the complex issues that lie in the American foundation of a slaveholding society in Callaway County, Missouri. The slavery system grew into a nightmare of cruelty and abuse during this dark period. In the book Celia, A Slave by Melton McLaurin, the historian succeeds to convey the story of a slave girl by the name of Celia who suffers repeatedly sexual exploitation by her master and ultimately hanged for his murder. This event took place during a dark period of the antebellum America. Celia’s trial opened a new chapter in the world of slavery; socially, politically, and sexually, pushing beyond the limits in a system that didn’t see slaves as humans but viewed as property. McLaurin uses
This social issue is a condition that concerned most slave females in society, but there was no law to protect them from such violation. Since there was no law that made slave rape a crime, it was impossible for whites to press charges. He describes how female slaves were sexually assaulted by their owners on a daily basis and at the same time brutally punished. When Celia is first brought, she is raped on the way home and it’s clear that she is to replace Newsom’s wife. Celia suffered this hate crime, rape, repeatedly against her will by her master, giving life to two children. The defence attorney claimed Newsom’s death as a justifiable homicide, an act of self defence “that even a slave woman could resist unwanted sexual advances”. At the same time the defense counsel questioned the competence of a slave woman, “The issue of who controlled access to female slaves held tremendous economic, as well as social significance”. In October 1855, she was sentenced to death by hanging. Many people became outrage by this frustrating case because there was an appeal to the supreme court but the execution was still scheduled to take place. Thus saying McLaurin implies that the rape of a slave woman is seen as insignificant and was justified by the law. The rape of a female slave is not rape but
In the book, it reveal that the state of Missouri had a law against rapping woman but that’s only accounted for white females. The only thing that the slaves had was a law that allowed them to defend themselves even if it meant taking a life “the law gave a slave the right to use force to repel physical attacks that threatened his or her life”. Though the laws existed in the state it did not help Celia during her trial. Rape by a white man meant that the slave would have to testify. Celia did receive legal representation yet the lawyers could not adequately defend her because slaves were not allowed to testify in court nor get the full testimony answering the question “why kill Robert Newsom in the first place” . The evidence that would have helped her case was allowed but wasn’t used in her trail. In the dynamics of slavery, this book emphasize that the laws only protected the slave owner and that the only law slaves had failed to protect

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of Celia, A Slave By Melton A. Mclaurin

    960 Words  | 2 Pages

    Prior to the Civil War, the young United States of America was in a period of rapid expansion. Hoping to find prosperity in new land acquired by the Louisiana Purchase, Americans ventured westward. Along with this expansion, however, came the increasing tension over slavery. Conflicts arose, and in one particular town, where a slave named Celia was accused of the murder of Robert Newsom, her owner, tested the ambiguous laws and human rights ideals of that age. In “Celia, A Slave,” Melton A. McLaurin identifies the moral dilemmas confronting Americans regarding slaves and conveys how the patriarchal system and “abused” usage of law benefited the powerful and disadvantage those outside of the group, especially people of color. By critically analyzing and cross examining historical events and evidence with records of Celia’s trial, McLaurin offers an enlightening view of the prominent issues of slavery that plagued antebellum southern society.

    Read More

  • Moral Dilemmas in Celia, A Slave by Melton McLaurin

    1197 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Navid Walker's Appeal And The Confessions Of Nat Turner

    1184 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the former, out of 54 who was thought to be part of the insurgency and brought to Southampton’s court (Greenberg, pg. 57-58) one Black enslaved woman, Lucy Barrow was arrested and hanged (Greenberg, pg. 13), and she didn’t kill or hurt any White during the insurgency but simply prevented one from escaping, but was helped by another enslaved Black (Greenberg, pg. 98). Though admittedly guilty, we can see how demanding of blood the Whites were, during this critical moment that anything that could’ve hurt their brothers and sisters were punished by either hanging or transportation back to Africa. Meanwhile, in the latter’s pamphlet, he took time to mention the significant role of an enslaved Black woman in the recapturing of slaves in Kentucky, who fought back against their captors. A rare opportunity wasted by the unnecessary kindness of the enslaved woman. She was heavily criticized by Walker saying that “the actions… really unsupportable” (Wilentz, pg. 24). He also mentioned how heartless White Christian Americans were and they deserve no support nor protection from the Black people. Though, it should also be noted that the man helped by the Black woman was a Negro driver, and therefore, she may have felt a bit kinship or brother/sisterhood for their skin colour. It also possible that her mother instinct kicked in and

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Harriet Jacobs And Elizabeth Keckley

    1737 Words  | 4 Pages

    During slavery there was nothing, no law, to stop a white male from raping a slave woman that lived in his plantation. As a result of this a lot of slaves were raped with no one being able to do anything about it. The narratives of both Harriet Jacobs and Elizabeth Keckley narrate how their slave owners abused them sexually. Jacobs was a house worker and her parents were also slaves, his father was part of the skilled workers group. Keckley was a house and field worker and her parents were also slave field workers. Both of them were daughters of slaves, owned by a rich white plantation owner and both were women. Now there was only one difference that Harriet Jacobs had a lighter skin complexion that Elizabeth.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Celia, A Slave

    956 Words  | 2 Pages

    In times when slavery was abundant, female slaves faced oppression in many ways unthinkable. Collectively, the multitude of injustices changed the way American society functioned. Celia, A Slave tells the truly tragic story of Celia, a young slave girl, and her attempt to resist oppression. Celia was sexually abused and repeatedly taken advantage of by her slave master, Robert Newsom. Eventually, Celia retaliated and murdered Newsom. Though her fight of self-defense was supported by many, Celia was hung as punishment for the crime she had committed.

    Read More

  • Harriet Jacobs Incidents And A Slave Girl: An Analysis

    1129 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Major Themes In The Trial Of Celia, A Slave

    750 Words  | 2 Pages

    Women who were enslaved during the slave period endured much suffrage. Not only were they the subject of chattel slavery, but some were also molested by their masters, for their own personal pleasure. In some cases, masters would pair “good breeders” together so their farm would benefit and they would have more slaves. This behavior would lead to force rape. The purpose of the book is to demonstrate how slavery crippled African American slaves from defending themselves due to oppression, particularly women. The trial of Celia, A Slave opens a gateway where people’s morals and actions were put into question after the death of her master. Themes such as gender oppression, chattel slavery, race, prejudice, revolt are some themes present in Celia,

    Read More

  • Celia A Slave Thesis

    831 Words  | 2 Pages

    The challenges and difficulties slaves faced at the time of Celia’s trial left white Americans viewing them with little entitlements. Celia’s trial brought a new perspective into society in a time where slaves, especially females, were without hope. Her story was a beneficial challenge to the institution of slavery because it reached the thoughts of many involved in the controversy during the 1850s and left an effect on the standards of

    Read More

  • Celia, A Slave...

    1459 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl And Frederick Douglass

    1202 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • What did freedom mean to harriet jacobs

    1325 Words  | 3 Pages

    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...

    Read More

  • The Unique Experience of Women Slaves

    1348 Words  | 3 Pages

    Women slaves were subject to unusually cruel treatment such as rape and mental abuse from their master’s, their unique experience must have been different from the experience men slaves had. While it is no secret that the horrors of the institution of slavery were terrible and unimaginable; those same horrors were no big deal for southern plantation owners. Many engaged in cruelty towards their slaves. Some slave owners took particular interest in their young female slaves. Once caught in the grips of a master’s desire it would have been next to impossible to escape. In terms of actual escape from a plantation most women slaves had no reason to travel and consequentially had no knowledge of the land. Women slaves had the most unfortunate of situations; there were no laws that would protect them against rape or any injustices. Often the slave that became the object of the master’s desires would also become a victim of the mistress of the household. Jealousy played a detrimental role in the dynamic the enslaved women were placed within. Regardless of how the slave felt she could have done little to nothing to ease her suffering.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Harriet Jacobs Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl

    1019 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Gender Slavery And Freedom Essay

    1004 Words  | 3 Pages

    During the eighteenth and nineteenth-century, notions of freedom for Black slaves and White women were distinctively different than they are now. Slavery was a form of exploitation of black slaves, whom through enslavement, lost their humanity and freedom, and were subjected to dehumanizing conditions. African women and men were often mistreated through similar ways, especially when induced to labor, they would eventually become a genderless individual in the sight of the master. Despite being considered “genderless” for labor, female slaves suddenly became women who endured sexual violence. Although a white woman was superior to the slaves, she had little power over the household, and was restricted to perform additional actions without the consent of their husbands. The enslaved women’s notion to conceive freedom was different, yet similar to the way enslaved men and white women conceived freedom. Black women during slavery fought to resist oppression in order to gain their freedom by running away, rebel against the slaveholders, or by slowing down work. Although that didn’t guarantee them absolute freedom from slavery, it helped them preserve the autonomy and a bare minimum of their human rights that otherwise, would’ve been taken away from them. Black

    Read More

  • The Trial Of Girlhood And A Perilous Passage In The Slave Girl's Life Analysis

    758 Words  | 2 Pages

    In conclusion, women were considered property and slave holders treated them as they pleased. We come to understand that there was no law that gave protection to female slaves. Harriet Jacob’s narrative shows the true face of how slaveholders treated young female slave. The female slaves were sexually exploited which damaged them physically and psychologically. Furthermore it details how the slave holder violated the most sacred commandment of nature by corrupting the self respect and virtue of the female slave. Harriet Jacob writes this narrative not to ask for pity or to be sympathized but rather to show the white people to be aware of how female slaves constantly faced sexual exploitation which damaged their body and soul.

    Read More

More about Rape In Celia, A Slave, By Melton Mclaurin

Open Document