Celia, A Slave

The state of Missouri had a law against rape in 1850. It prohibited anyone from taking "any woman unlawfully against her will and by force, menace or duress, compel her to be defiled." Missouri had another law that allowed slaves to fight for their own lives, even if it meant they had to use deadly force.

The court would apply neither of those laws to Celia. This is her story.

When she was just fourteen, Celia was sold to Robert Newsom, a recently widowed slave owner. On the way home, Newsom raped Celia for the first time. He raped her many more times after that. As a result of two of the rapes, Celia had two children. Both children became Newsom's property.

By 1855, Celia had a relationship with George, another slave on Newsom's plantation. When she became pregnant again, Celia wasn't sure about the father. It had to be either George or "the master."

George told Celia he would have nothing to do with her again unless she told Newsom to leave her alone. She did that on June 23, 1855. But Newsom was the master. A slave didn't tell the master what to do. Newsom came back to Celia's cabin that night.

Ready for Newsom this time, Celia struck him with a heavy stick when he refused to leave her alone. She hit him again when Newsom came back at her. She had tried to hurt him, to keep him away. She ended with a result she had not intended. Newsom was dead.

Frightened at what she had done, Celia tried to burn Newsom's body in her fireplace. She didn't know it takes a long time to burn a human body. She didn't realize her fireplace wouldn't be hot enough. Her efforts left all kinds of incriminating evidence.

At her trial, Celia's lawyers could not adequately defend their client. How could Celia tell her story when slaves could not testify? How could Celia defend her actions when the judge said the law prohibiting rape did not apply to slaves? How could Celia's lawyers say that Newsom was the wrongdoer when Missouri law held that a slave was owned property?

In fact, the only person protected by the law when it came to rape of a slave was the slave owner. He was allowed to sue a rapist for trespass on his property!

During Celia's trial, time-honored rules of evidence were ignored. Hearsay, which is absolutely forbidden to prove the truth of an assertion, was used to tell her story. But even hearsay was twisted to suit the prosecution's side.

The judge threw out all testimony on Celia's reasons for striking Newsom. On October 10, 1855 Celia was convicted of murder. She was sentenced to hang the next month.

With such blatant error in the record, the defense team tried to hold up Celia's execution while they appealed to the Missouri Supreme Court. While the high court agreed to hear Celia's case, it refused to grant a stay of execution.

Some outraged citizens tried to take matters into their own hands. They "kidnapped" Celia before the date she was to hang and returned her only after the date had passed. It was an effort that did not save Celia.

She was executed, by hanging, on December 21, 1855.

In Celia, A Slave, Melton A. Mclaurin tells us what happened next:

...Celia was marched to the gallows.  At 2:30 on a Friday afternoon, the trap was spring and Celia fell to her death.  The names of those who participated in or witnessed her death are not recorded, but given the time of execution, it is likely that many of Fulton and Callaway County's citizens stood at the foot of the gallows.

One of the witnesses was the unidentified Telegraph reporter, in all probability the man who edited the paper throughout the decade of the 1850s, John B. Williams.  With unintentional irony, that witness precisely characterized Celia's death:  "Thus closed one of the most horrible tragedies ever enacted in our county."  (Celia, A Slave, by Melton A. McLaurin, page 135.)

Callaway Circuit Court's records regarding the case - The State of Missouri Against Celia, A Slave - still exist.  The originals have been digitized and are available online.  See page 59 for reference to the death sentence.

Original Release Date:  July, 2000
Updated Quarterly, or as Needed