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Celia's Trial

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"Celia, A Slave" is a very controversial story of a young female slave who murdered her master then burned his body on June 23, 1855. This issue took place in Missouri during a period where Kansas has a debate whether the union is a free or slave state. Celia plays a big role in how society views this debate of slavery. Different people have opposing views on slavery and some see the justification on the trial. In this story, it emphasizes a lot in the social, political, and sexual ramification of this dark past in American history. The social ramification keeps going to this day. Even though Celia was raped she was given her legal right as a white person would. “Celia’s trial, its causes, and consequences, confront us with the hard daily …show more content…

The political ramification was a big part of this trail. ”The legal principle that a slave could, in extreme circumstance, resort to the use of deadly force to protect her life was also one that had been upheld in a number of southern state court decisions."(The trail. p.102) Celia did not mean to kill him but to only hurt him, if he got mad if she denied him. The jury didn’t think of that way. In the 1850s the state of miss our had a law against rape and allowing a woman to use deadly force to protect herself from rape, even homicide was justified. Those Laws were never applied to Celia because she was a slave. The political aspect of this was she was not treated equally. Her verdict was an injustice, her actions were justified. Even now there has been cases that haven’t been trailed like Celia's only because of their …show more content…

When Celia first came to the Newson farm was when she was fourteen. On that trip home, she is raped by Newson and from that “life for Celia would entail continual sexual exploitation by her master”(The Crime p.25) Celia was just fourteen, by the time she was had given birth to two children to be fathered by Newson but when she was pregnant with her third not knowing if its Newson or George a slave that she had made a strong relationship with Celia would deny Newson sexual desire. Celia pled with Newson directly to leave her alone using her pregnancy as an excuse. All of her pleads for him to leave her are ignore to the belief "as her master he considers sexual relation with her his privilege" (The Crime. p.33) As Newson went that night of the crime and the only thing she did what she had to do to defend herself. She was scared that she ended Newson's life. She confesses how and why she killed Newson, but the jury nor the community on June 25, 1855, the case The State of Missouri vs. Celia a Slave began but it was a hard trial do its neighboring state of Kansas ruling is the union is a free or slave

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