Alisha Mehdi

September 29, 2016

History 7A
Lubisich
Celia, a Slave
Chapters 1-2 Discussion
Celia, A Slave, written by Melton A. McLaurin, documents the trial
of Celia, who was enslaved by Robert Newsom, a man who moved to
Calloway County in Missouri with his family to find a prosperous life. As
Newsom was introduced he seemed like a decent farmer. However as
his intentions for purchasing Celia were revealed his true character was
brought to light. Over the course of five years, it was made known that
Newsom raped her and sexually assaulted her numerous times. He had
abused her, physically and emotionally, and even bore her two
children. When Celia developed a relationship with another male slave,
George, who told her to break it off with Newsom, she was
understandably scared and likely lacked the support of Newsoms
daughters. When she finally confronted him, he was unsympathetic
and treated her like she was his property. Using courage, she used a
weapon to strike him on the head twice. He died and to dispose of the
body she decided to burn it. Celia understood the severity of her
actions and knew what would happen to her if she were found out.
Reading the story reconfirmed what we had been taught and what we
are learning in this section. It was hard for families of slaves, and they
were usually broken up, as we can that is what happened to Celia, who

was separated from her family. She was also nervous that her kids
would be taken from her if she stood up for herself. However some
slaves had communities of support, but in this case Celia did not. Her
isolation from a slave community probably harmed her chances of
being able to defend herself and have others to help. Her experiences
as a slave are tragic and horrific and remind me of one of the primary
sources we looked at, the letter written by Elizabeth Sprigs to her
father. Elizabeth was a female, an indentured servant and she was
white, so she was actually treated a little bit better than Celia, but she
was still treated poorly. In the letter she wrote to her father, she
complained about her unfortunate circumstances. Life as an
indentured slave was not easy and she obviously had to endure many
hardships. Celia also faced many hardships and specifically fell victim
to abuse from her owner and had to deal with the trauma that came
from Newsoms treatment and use of her for his sole pleasure. Some
thing that I learned was how helpless all women were during that time,
albeit some more than others. Obviously female slaves were at a huge
disadvantage, they were always being used and treated unfairly. If they
tried to change their situations, many times they would get physically
hurt or have their children taken away from them. This stopped a lot of
them from fighting back. Even white women, if they had any opinions,
could not say anything because they were dependent on the males in
the household. Mary and Virginia, daughters or Robert, could not even

acknowledge his relationship with Celia or say anything to him because

their kids and them were dependent on him. It is not clear if they were
even against it, but those who were against anything at that time could
not even speak up. Reading about Celias experience has helped
portray a more raw and emotional situation that many undeserving
people were put in and had to go through. We have been taught about
slavery but have not always been given the details. Celias experience
showed us more of the horrific ideals of some of the people during that
time and how they chose to treat and view their slaves. It has helped
deepen my understanding of the course material because the true
story is just one small example in a myriad of many that show the
horrendous and dreadful qualities of the slave trade using personal
experience.

If Celia did not have any kids, do you think she would have chosen to
run away? If she did choose to run away would that have been a better
decision than doing what she did to Newsom? Also, if George hadnt
pressured her to stand up to Newsom, do you think she ever would
have?