Celia's Trial Analysis

Celia’s trial was a big event during the time many were surprised she even got a trial after all she did kill her slave holder (Robert Newsom). Her story gave many a new view on slavery and the treatment of slaves and the continuation of slavery. The time period this is set in is very prone to these situations slave uprising due to certain states being free states and just years before the beginning of the civil war. During this time slavery was being debated as right or wrong. The slaves began to feel fed up with the treatment of themselves and fellow slaves so many revolts and uprisings began during the time period, and this was just moments before the civil war began as a fight for equal right for all. Many white people and slave holders
They questioned the slaves that worked in that area and eventually questioned Celia’s lover who to protect himself told them to speak to Celia saying she might know something of his whereabouts. They arrested Celia and began questioning her, for hours she denied everything but eventually she confessed to his murder but explained it was all in self-defense from his sexual advances. Now at this point we can kind of see things going south for Celia she has been charged with murder and murder of a white man who just so happened to be her slaveholder. During this time a lot of slave uprisings and people fighting for the freedom of slaves was beginning so in a way Missouri had to give her a trial or risk conflict with the northern states. Her appointed lawyer John Jameson was in quiet of a rut himself if Celia won her case he reputation could be damaged and he could be called a “Nigger Stealer”. But he did his job and did it well he didn’t have much of a defense to start off with since Celia was property and was not raped by another man other than Newsom if she was it would have been considering trespassing. So he took a bold move in displaying Newsom as a monster raping a very young woman and deteriorating her health because of the pregnancies and physical abuse during rape. An even braver thing that he did was apply a law that was created to protect white women from rape in the south
Let’s not forget that the Kansas Nebraska act was coming into effect during this time and many Missourians feared the repeal of the Missouri compromise would occur which means no more free labor. ”In Missouri this fear was heightened with the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, and the struggle for Kansas between Free Soil and proslavery forces that followed. Slaveholding Missourians came to view all nonslaveholding Kansas settlers as abolitionists and “nigger stealers” ideologues who threatened both the property and safety of law-abiding Missouri citizens.”(pg. 56). In that case many of these people that were proslavery believed they should break their spirits to prevent them from uprising and influencing repeal. Celia’s trial displayed the unfair treatment of the slaves how the slaveholders could get away with anything but if the slaves were getting raped or beaten it would literally be their fault just because they were property. Those proslavery couldn’t see the wrong in her trial she was raped and eventually got sick of it so she defended herself. However she was blamed for getting raped and defending herself. Her case is the very reason to fight for equal rights for all (not specifically her case but it represented what people were fighting