Analysis Of The Book ' Celia A Slave '

One complication that came from a sexual relationship between a master and a slave would be if the slave

In the book titled Celia, a Slave, written by Melton A. McLaurin, the story of a young slave woman is narrated. Celia had been bought at the age of fourteen by a male slaveholder named Robert Newsom. Newsom purchased Celia with the intention to “purchase a replacement for his wife” (18). Newsom’s wife had passed away a few years earlier, so “he required a sexual partner” (18). Throughout her stay at the Newsom household, Robert Newsom consistently raped and sexually exploited Celia. Celia’s lover, George, gave her an ultimatum saying that if she did not stop having intercourse with Newsom, George would leave her. Stricken with anxiety over possibly losing her lover and determined to stop Newsom’s behavior, Celia beat Newsom to death and burned his body in the fireplace. Celia went to trial, was convicted guilty for the murder of Robert Newsom, and was sentenced to death. Celia, being both a woman and a slave, had to endure twice the amount of hardships in an era controlled by “the sexual politics of slavery,” which was characterized by the exploitation of slaves both financially and sexually, unfair power dynamics, and little legal recourse.

The slave owner’s exploitation of the black woman’s sexuality was one of the most significant factors differentiating the experience of slavery for males and females. The white man’s claim to the slave body, male as well as female, was inherent in the concept of the Slave Trade and was tangibly realized perhaps no where more than the auction block. Captive Africans were stripped of their clothing, oiled down, and poked and prodded by potential buyers. The erotic undertones of such scenes were particularly pronounced in the case of black women. Throughout the period of slavery in America, white society believed black women to be innately lustful beings. The perception of the African woman as hyper-sexual made her both the object of white man’s abhorrence and his fantasy. Within the bonds of slavery, masters often felt it was their right to engage in sexual activity with black women. Sometimes, female slaves made advances hoping that such relationships would increase the chances that they or their children would be liberated by the master. Most of the time, slave owners took slaves by force.

Released in 1993, Celia, A Slave was written as a true story of a young slaved girl who broke some of the most unbreakable of the rules that applied to slaves which took more abuse than most of her peers. The work as a whole

In Celia, a Slave, written by Melton A. McLaurin, the relationships of race, gender, sexuality, power, law, and slavery in the antebellum South is revealed by Celia’s case. In antebellum South, many things dictated a person’s worth, but the race of a person was the number one factor. If a person was of a race other than Caucasian, such as being Black, then he or she would live in the United States as one of two classifications: slave or freed slave. Of these two classifications, both were thought as being subpar humans when compared to white citizens. Due to these beliefs regarding Blacks, slave and free, Blacks themselves were unable to protect themselves from slave masters and in most legal standings (McLaurin 137). This means that Blacks did not have the same citizenship as white people because a slave was not a citizen in the eyes of the law but the human property of his or her master. Gender is the second idea that dictated a person’s worth and character. Males, white particularly, always held more power and sexual control over the women of the antebellum South. White women, when married, became the legal property of her husband (139). Even if a woman was not married, then she was still considered the property of her father and under his protection until she was given away. For example, Virginia Waynescot and Mary Newsome both lived with their father, Robert Newsome (10-11). By living with their father, the two daughters basically handed over their power because Robert

Celia, a Slave was a truthful elucidation of one disengaged episode that delineated basic slave dread amid the prior to the war time of the United States. Melton A. McLaurin, utilized this record of a youthful slave lady 's battle through the undeserved hardships of assault and unfairness to disclose to today 's guileless society a superior delineation of what servitude could have been similar to. The tale of Celia delineates the base of racial issues Americans still face in their general public. In spite of the fact that not about as great, they keep on living in a white-male overwhelmed society that looks downward on African-Americans, particularly females. McLaurin takes a gander at the perspectives of the time, and conjectures the probabilities of this pre - Civil War time, the estimations of which still puncture every day life in the United States.

Newsom’s daughters seemed to feel strong disapproval and anger with their father’s relationship with Celia, but had little power against him as southern white women (26). Instead of blaming their father, the girls blamed Celia for her stereotypically black promiscuity and obeyed their father’s wishes for their dependence on him (26). Blaming Celia would cause fewer familial disputes within the household and manufacture self-convinced peace between the daughters. Newsom’s younger son David even “welcomed” the idea of a sexual slave, seeing the potential of using her in the future as well (26). There was no strong evidence about the aggression that Newsom displayed towards Celia, but he had little reason not be violent or forceful on her. He especially needed to reinforce his power over her so that she wouldn’t run or fight back. Therefore, it was difficult to say that Newsom felt any remorse or reason to be softer on Celia, for she was simply his property.

Celia, a Slave is the epitome of the relationship between slaves and their owners and also the slaves and other whites in the 1850’s. This is based on her interactions with her owner Robert Newsom and her reactions mainly with the community involved in her court case. These relationships affected more so the women slaves rather than the men slaves because of their weaker nature as perceived by the sexual differences of the time period between men and women in general. Slavery is questioned by the morals of the Northerners and some Southerners though it is common in the South so most Southerners reinforce the ideas of slavery with their own morals, believing slaves as meaningless because of their difference.

What was Celia’s relationship with George, and why did he give her an ultimatum? What was his motive for doing so?

White explores the master’s sexual exploitation of their female slaves, and proves this method of oppression to be the defining factor of what sets the female slaves apart from their male counterparts. Citing former slaves White writes, “Christopher Nichols, an escaped slave living in Canada, remembered how his master laid a woman on a bench, threw her clothes over her head, and whipped her. The whipping of a thirteen-year-old Georgia slave girl also had sexual overtones. The girl was put on all fours ‘sometimes her head down, and sometimes up’ and beaten until froth ran from her mouth (33).” The girl’s forced bodily position as well as her total helplessness to stop her master’s torture blatantly reveals the forced sexual trauma many African females endured.

During this time period, slave owners would often rape their slaves. Slaves, especially light skinned slaves, were ideal sex companions because of their beauty, age, and inability to speak up for themselves. Louisa herself was the result of slave rape, and she lived a hard life although she appeared white. Louisa's second owner, Mr. Cook, whipped her very often, especially when drunk (Piquet 2). Mr. Cook's debt allowed Louisa to be hired out to Mr. English who would never whip Louisa (Picquet 3). While living in Mobile with Mr. English, Louisa noticed an encounter between a "perfectly white man and a jet black man," both of whom were slaves to the same master (Picquet 4). The darker skinned slave became jealous of the lighter skinned slave because he noticed the treatment for him was far better. In order to seek revenge, the darker skinned slave told their master that he saw the lighter colored slave walking out with a girl, which did not happen (Picquet 4). The master sent for Mr. T, the lighter colored slave, and he proceeded to whip him and then called for the alleged girl and whipped her before sending her off to New Orleans. This event shed light on the extent of the racial issue in American slavery to Louisa. Although there were many slaves that appeared white, they were considered black even if they were majority white. They may have received better treatment than darker-skinned slaves, but white men and women still hated them the same and treated them

“’Why-but you were married to me, by the minister, as much as if you’d been a white man!’ said Eliza, simply. ‘Don’t you know a slave can’t be married? There is no law in this country for that; I can’t hold you for my wife, if he chooses to part us” (22).

In the 19th century, the south part of the US exercised high levels of slavery, and this made even the southern state laws and policies to be amended. However, the northern part was not in support of slavery, and this made the federal laws and policies to have a great contradiction with the southern states laws, for example, Missouri state laws. According to the book "Celia, A Slave” authored by Melton McLaurin’s which is a 1991 series, there were a lot of changes that were made on the law in 1819 (McLaurin, 1991). These rules had an enormous impact both positive and negative in the case of Celia, the slave girl. In the states of Missouri in 1855 which is the same year that Celia killed her master and burned his body in her fireplace, the state has passed a policy that it was illegal and a crime for any man to take any woman unlawfully against her wish and will.

Melton A. McLaurin wrote this book to uncover the force the fabric of antebellum southern society. According to McLaurin Celia’s case is an example of how Masters take advantage of the power he has over one slave and it pushed whites to make the overall decision about the nature of slavery. McLaurin breaks down the role of gender and how the female slaves where sexually exploited and treated unfairly. McLaurin starts the book of by reminding

	The book discussed how one of the principle reasons as to how the white woman or mistress and the black women got along, depends on whether or not the slave women appeared to threaten the social status of the women. When the white men tried to rape the black women it made the white women socially look like nothing more than a slave. This made the white women feel forced to prove to the black women that power still remained in the white woman’s corner regardless of the master’s sexual desires. The mistresses made sure that the slave women understood that they valued less than any white women, for the main reason that the white woman had true power as long as the main wanted her. An example of this that I read would be when a white woman outwardly expressed that she worried mainly about her loss of power, not actually about marriage. Saphire, a fictional character that Gwin analyzes, says "...mainly concerned with her power... she views her husbands affections for a slave as an undercutting of her power over him in their relationship which. As the husband himself describes as, what makes her the master and him the miller." (pg 133) The slave that caused this upset usually received many beatings and unnecessary overworking of the slave. At the time, this treatment was not unheard of and needed, the white slave owners used it as an example to show all slaves that they were not worth the air they breath except in the fields.