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Celia a slave 4 page essay
Celia a slave critical analysis essay
Celia a slave 4 page essay
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Celia, a Slave is a true story of a fourteen-year-old female slave purchased from Audrain County, Missouri by a wealthy, middle-aged, widowed, landowner named Robert Newsom from Callaway County, Missouri. Celia was the first woman of five slaves Newsom owned. She was purchased to take the place of Newsom’s late wife. In 1855, Celia was charged with killing her master after being continuously raped by him for several years. In Melton McLaurin’s Celia, A Slave, McLaurin exemplifies the oppressive difficulties of a female slave in Missouri in the 1850s. Newsom purchased Celia as the household cook but used her as his concubine. On the day Celia was purchased, she was raped by Newsom. “Life for Celia would entail continual sexual exploitation by her master” (McLaurin, 22). For 5 years, Celia was denied of her dignity and humanity as were many female slaves in the 19th century. In Missouri, sexual assault of a slave woman by a white male was not considered rape but was considered trespass. Slave women were considered property so an owner could not be charged with trespassing on his own property. “Female slaves were clearly viewed by slaveholders as an economic asset over which they had controlled” (McLaurin, 108). A master had complete and total access to and control over the bodies of his female slaves. Many slaveholders’ demanded …show more content…
Slaves that were taken from their homes and families felt like did not have a safe place to go or anyone to rely on. Slaves could not rely on other slaves for protection without potentially putting the other slave’s life in danger. Some may have feared what the discipline for revolting might be. Some slaves may have been like Celia and could not resist oppression and leave because they had children. Celia could not leave her children behind, but if she brought them with her, they would slow her down so she had no choice but to
If a family was wealthy enough, they would accommodate their property, meaning the slaves. They were a part of the owner’s family and were as brutally treated comparing to slaves of the Colonial
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.
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.
Families torn apart, humans sold on auction blocks, using humans for animal labor. These tragedies along with the words of the Quaker poet John Whiittier are just the beginning when trying to explain the motivation for abolitionists helping to free slaves.
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.
After the Civil War, many of the ex-slaves moved away from their masters with their families in hopes of owning their own land, but very few found success. Many of the slaves found that they had a harder time being free than they did during slavery. The African-Americans now had to fend for themselves but most lacked the money, land, and jobs to do so. Some of the ex-slaves decided to stay and work for their masters for money, food, and shelter, but many were not fortunate enough to have that option. Many African-Americans died because they could not support themselves or their families on their own. The ex-slaveowners were also in a bad position at this point because they lack the manpower to manage their land. Henry William Ravenel, a former slaveowner, stated "Our Finances are in such a condition that universal discontent and real suffering exists (Firsthand 21)." ...
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.
To begin, throughout slavery slaves were forced to endure tremendous amounts of psychological/emotional trauma. Psychological/emotional trauma can be defined as the heavy amounts of stress that the slaves were forced to experience due to the harsh reality of the slave lifestyle. The psychological/emotional trauma caused slaves to negatively change their perspective on life and their overall way of thinking. This is illustrated in the film Sankofa, when the film excellently portrays the differences between the two save classes: field slaves and house slaves. In the movie Sankofa the field slaves have a strong dislike for the house slaves, because the house slaves received many luxuries that the field slaves didn’t. These luxuries included having
Slave narratives depicted a lot of dehumanizing aspects. More times than not slaves felt like property and not real human beings. In these true stories slaves write about how their treatment lead to the breaking of their spirit and motivation. There were plenty examples of harsh working conditions. It was demeaning for the slaves to be deprived of learning and knowledge. In regards to women who were slaves they had to endure a lot of sexual abuse from their masters. The slave owners would also give slaves false illusions on what freedom really meant. It was common for slaves to be removed from their families. Resources were always inadequate to meet their needs. These examples of dehumanization described through personal narratives were all reasons why Americans decided to join the abolition movement.
Slaves longed to be free for more than one reason. Some just would love to be able to go where they want and say what they want without persecution. Who wouldn't want to be able to have this? Other slaves ran from owners out of fear. They wanted to keep their families together and not be sold away from them. There were also slaves that were treated very poorly. In fact, they were treated so poorly that if the didn't run they might not live much longer. Slaves have wanted to escape their slavery as far back as the first colonies had begun. The only truly free people were the whites, and blacks wanted to end that situation for good.
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
However, Melton's piece describes the life of a woman that existed in real life. Several books that discuss slavery, sexual harassment, oppression and racial discrimination use fictional characters to portray what happened in the new society. A good example is a book known as "The Native Son" which tells a story about a slave known as Bigger, who is a fictional character. Similar to Celia’s action, Bigger also killed his master due to sexual harassment. Another perfect example is "Kindred" a book about a slave called Dana, a fictional character who killed her master because of rape. Celia the Slave Book, on the other hand, is a story about a real woman owned by Robert Newsom in the state of Missouri in the 1850s (McLaurin, 1991). The murder of Newsom took place in the year 1855, which resulted in Celia’s trial in court and
The life of a slave is constantly in risk but, the most affected were the families. A family could be easily broken up at any time if one or both parents were sold to another slaveholder, "If a father or mother were sold away, an aunt, uncle, or close friend could raise the children left behind." (Pg.433). In case that a parent was sold, someone close to the family could raise their child. In fact, enslaved
Female slaves were beneficial in terms of economic productivity, family structure, and in some cases sexual pleasures. They were subjected to harsh treatment based not just on their skin color but gender as well. In the book, Celia was bought by Robert Newsom and on the first night on the way back to his farm he wasted no time in raping her. However, it was not just female slaves as alone, Roberts oldest daughter lived with her father and her kids and depended on him to survive. If she did want to confront her father on Celia’s behalf and tell her father what he was doing was wrong. It would not have been in her best interest, given the fact that she had no husband her father could have thrown her out. These two women are prime examples of how women during this time period were oppressed and did not have much say. It is one thing to be a female but in Celia’s case a black woman did not play in her
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.