Literary Analysis Essay on Celia, A Slave

Introduction

Melton A. McLaurin's Celia, A Slave, recounts the historical story about an ordinary slave girl with the same name. The facts presented in the book were based on a compilation of various historical documents. These documents were expected to reveal the events before and after her trial and execution in the book. McLaurin's main obstacles lied in the fact that there had been limited documents on Celia. Thus he admits that "the significance of Celia's story rests in large part upon how others responded to her" (McLaurin, p. x). Her trial did not even receive national any attention. However, her story provided readers with a reflection of slavery in the 1880s.

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Her middle-aged owners repeatedly abused Celia. The first incident occurred as the prosperous widower, Robert Newsom, brought Celia back to his farm in Missouri after he purchased her. And so, her story began. From then on, the young girl was treated as a concubine. She was pregnant multiple times because of his treatment. As she reached 19, she had been raped countless times over five years. Celia began her romantic relationship with another slave named George, and she decided that she could no longer bear the abuse. In her desperation, she begged Newsom to stop. At his refusal, she incidentally woundedNewsom. The wound was fatal, and Newsom was dead. Panicked, Celia decided to dispose of her former master's body in her fireplace. Unfortunately, the crime was quickly uncovered, and she was sent to the court. In this article, the focus will be on the theme of the resistance toward the slavery reform which will provide readers with an insight on the complicacy of the institutionalized slavery.

At the beginning of the 19th century, there had been a heated debate on the issue of slavery in Missouri. As a result, a Compromise was established. "The Missouri Compromise-also referred to as the Compromise of 1820-was an agreement between the pro- and anti-slavery factions regulating slavery in the western territories." (The American Anthropological Association, 2008). Due to this reason, Celia's trial had been important, for it may have been very impactful for the two opposing groups as well as the penal system of Missouri in terms of the rights of slaves and their applications in the actual court system. Unfortunately, the trial was just another form of resistance toward the slavery reform.

The main character to signify the resistance is immediately introduced as the story opens, Robert Newsom. "Robert Newsom seemed like an ideal representative of the family farmers who in 1850 composed the majority of the citizens of Callaway Country, Missouri. His life experiences, family relationships, and economic status made him seem so" (McLaurin, p. 1). On paper, although he was not a native of Missouri, Newsom was one of the majority-white people living in his community. Newsom came from a wealthy family of landowners. His farmland was his source of income. Despite the controversy of slavery, it was not uncommon for a wealthy white family to have slaves. As McLaurin writes, about 40% of the population in the county were slave owners (p. 9). Even John Jameson, Celia's attorney, was a slave owner. However, his sympathy toward Celia suggested that he disapproved of slave abuse and treated his slaves kindly. The slave owners were dependent on slaves to assist with their household chores and to work on their farms. Thus, it was not unusual for Newsom to purchase Celia as one of his "possessions."

What most people were not aware of were Newsom's brutal nature and disturbing behavior. Upon the death of his wife, he decided not to remarry. Instead, he purchased a young slave who was about the same age as his daughter, Celia. Celia was to replace his wife in the sexual sphere. Before the purchase, he owned five male slaves to cater to his family needs. There was little knowledge of his personality. However, he seemed to earn respect from his neighbors and had been a good father. Unfortunately, at the same time, he had been an insensitive and self-centered man. He disregarded generally accepted morality that it was wrong for a slave owner to rape. He refused to see Celia as a human being, rather he saw her as his property. Thus, he did not seek her consent for sex. Unfortunately, even after two children, society did nothing to stop the abuse. It had been known that Newsom's children had been living with him and Celia had pleaded for them to help her put a stop to the abuse. Despite that, the abuse continued.

As mentioned earlier, there was little information about Celia. However, her prior insistence of denying the murder, even under the threat that her children would be taken away from her, signified that she understood the severity of the punishment that a slave would receive for murder. Celia may not have known that rape was a crime in Missouri at that time. However, she was sure that she would be refused her self-defense right because she was a slave. A slave was not only denied their legal status but could also not own property. Beside Newsom, Hall was a central character that reflects a resistance toward the slavery reform. His resistance can be seen as he cut short Celia's central argument of self-defense by not allowing "any reference to supposed threats on Celia's life..." (p. 106). In addition to that, he also "delivered to the jury every instruction requested by the prosecution" (p. 110). The trial was not for Celia. It had been for his benefit in the case of reelection. The life of a slave did not matter to him.

Melton A. McLaurin's Celia, A Slave, provides an insight into slavery and the resistance toward slavery reform. Celia was a slave that belonged to the household of Robert Newsom. Newsom seemed like a majority of a prominent middle-aged man. However, unlike most slaves, Celia was purchased to replace his deceased wife and to satisfy his sexual needs. Newsom refused to accept the general moral that it was wrong to abuse a slave. Because of this, he represents a resistance to the reform. The sexual abuse began as soon as she was brought home to Newsom's Missouri farm and continued through the course of five years. Celia endured the abuse, and she was impregnated at least three times. Later, Celia was tried for murdering Newsom. Unfortunately, her trial was just another form of resistance. Hall made sure that she was not to be justly tried. However, he needed the trial to increase his popularity and gain personal benefits. As a result, despite all defense efforts, Celia received a death sentence.

The Atlantic region of the San Juan Bautista was grieved by the cruel models of the Middle Passage; some of the slaves died when the ship arrived at the Gulf of Mexico. At that point, it was apprehended by two English traders who were authorized under the remote angle of accommodation. They were searching for gold and silver. The pirates discovered the slaves and took around 60 of the Africans and traveled north toward Virginia, the nearest port. Some of the Africans were first recognized by name in a 1624 evaluation. They included Anthony and an Isabella, whose names given to them by the Europeans that were part of the family Captain William Tucker. Even though the state had no law allowing or forbidding the slave trade, the Africans became slaves. However, slavery was not part of the first arrangement for the settlement. The men who established the Virginia Company of London had dueling dreams a network of growers versus a business and exchanging focus, with a subspecialty in assaulting Spanish transportation. Neither imagined subjection as its key part (Hampson).

Rise of the Abolitionist Movement

Abolitionists confronted slavery on several grounds. Slavery was unlawful because it disregarded the standards of normal rights to life and freedom exemplified in the Declaration of Independence. Garrison said that equity is key, and he necessitated that the country "secures to the coloured populace." all the rights and benefits that have a place with them as men and as Americans. Slavery was evil, as in the expressions of abolitionist Theodore Weld that it had usurped the privilege of God. The slave masters decreased a Divine resembling being to a manipulable "THING." Slavery likewise supported extramarital perversion and undermined the place of marriage and the family. Not exclusively slaved experts explicitly mishandle and misuse slave ladies, abolitionists charged, however in some more seasoned southern states, for example, Virginia and Maryland, they reared slaves available to be purchased to the more as of late settled pieces of the Deep South (Hampson).

A portion of the fresh slave arrivals was gifted at cultivating, grouping, or ironworking. What is more, they resembled one another. As the legislative leader of Bermuda composed, slaves were the most appropriate and modest instruments' for raising tobacco. That still did not ensure that Virginia would get subject to servitude. Indeed, the quantity of subjugated individuals declined throughout the following barely any years, most likely due to illness, hunger, or an Indian war. White hirelings included the greater part of the province's work power into the 1670s.

Slavery was financially retrogressive. Abolitionists contended, because slaves, acted merely by fear for the unknown. By denying them work of any gainful o contributes to economic uprightness. Abolitionists charged that slavery hindered the advancement of towns, trenches, railways, and schools. Abolitionists incited a cruel public response in both the North and the South. The U.S. postmaster general would not convey abolitionist tracts toward the South. In every session of Congress somewhere in the range of 1836 and 1844, the House of Representatives embraced choke decides to permit that body naturally to table goals or petitions concerning the annulment of servitude.

The abolitionist development was a social and political push for the prompt liberation of everyone and bringing equality in the land, leading to the end of the slave trade and upholding for liberation against isolated slaves from progressively moderated abolitionist pushed for the contentment of a continuous liberation, and from "Free-Soil" activists who tried to limit subjection to existing territories and counteract its spread. Radical abolitionism was powered by the strict enthusiasm of the Second liberation, which provoked many individuals to advocate for the liberation of slaves on strict grounds (Filler). The abolitionist movement turned out to be progressively noticeable in Northern houses of worship and governmental issues starting during the 1830s, which added to the territorial hostility among North and south paving the way to the Civil War.

From the 1830s onwards, abolitionist development sought to accomplish the quick liberation from the slave trade, all things considered, and the use of racial isolation and separation. Their follow up of these objectives recognized abolitionists from the wide-based political restriction to subjugation's westbound development that took structure in the North after 1840 and raised issues prompting the Civil War. However, these two articulations of threatening vibe toward subjugation abolitionism were frequently firmly related in their convictions and their collaboration as well as in the mind of southern slaves who at last came to view the North as allies who joined against them for American liberation. Even though abolitionist emotions had been solid during the American Revolution, the movement did not blend into an aggressor campaign until the 1830s.

Final Push

In mid-1831, Garrison started distributing his popular paper, 'the Liberator,' in Boston, which was pushed generally by free African-Americans, who constantly assumed a significant job in the process. Towards the end of 1833, the Tappan's, Garrison, and sixty different rep...