Celia, A Slave

Celia was an ordinary slave—until she struck back at her abusive master and became the defendant in a landmark trial that threatened to undermine the very foundations of the South's "Peculiar Institution."

Celia was only 14 when she was purchased by John Newsom. On the journey back to his farm, Newsom raped the young girl, beginning a horrifying pattern of sexual abuse that would last for years. Finally she confronted him, struck him fatally with a club, was brought to trial and eventually hanged. An important addition to our understanding of the pre-Civil War era.

Celia was an ordinary slave—until she struck back at her abusive master and became the defendant in a landmark trial that threatened to undermine the very foundations of the South's "Peculiar Institution."

Publishers Weekly

This moving and masterfully told true story details the abuse and execution of a female black slave in antebellum Missouri. Melton, a professor of history at the University of North Carolina, provides vivid portraits of the teenaged Celia and her owner Robert Newsom, who repeatedly raped her in the five years following her purchase in 1850. Finally, Celia's love for another slave led to a confrontation during which she killed Newsom. Melton's account of her trial documents the hopelessness of a slave's plight; though many whites sympathized with Celia, she was put to death because slaves had no legal right to self-defense against their masters. Melton's rich narrative reads like a fine novel; his scholarship makes a vitally important contribution to understanding this chapter in American history. (Nov.)

Melton A. McLaurin is a professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. He is the author of Separate Pasts: Growing Up White in the Segregated South for which he received the Lillian Smith Award, and Celia, a Slave (both Georgia).