THECelia's story as we have kept in the archives begins with a personal tragedy in 1850, Robert Newson a prosperous 60-year-old farmer owner of ten slave men decides following the death of his wife to buy himself a new slave 40 kilometers from her plantation in Callaway County, Missouri. A lack of feminine presence that drove the old man turned his choice on a 14-year-old slave named Celia. On the way back to the plantation, the old man raped Celia for the first time, revealing the nature of the relationship the master wanted with the young girl. He installed her in a small wooden hut where he went regularly for 5 years to rape the young slave. During this period Celia gave birth to two children who also became the property of the master.
In the spring of 1855, Celia began an affair with George, another slave of the plantation, and became pregnant shortly after their relationship began. At George's request, Celia sought protection for Newson's daughter from the rape of the old man during her pregnancy. On the night of June 23, 1855, Robert Newson went to Celia's cabin, no doubt intending to rape her again. He never returned home.
Although during her trial Celia was not allowed to testify in her own defense, investigations made following celia's confession and physical evidence have led to reconstruct the events. Fearing her master, Celia had obtained a staff which she had hidden in a corner of her cabin. The evening of the assault, in a surge of self-defense Celia took her stick and fatally struck her master. She dismembered the body afterwards and tried to burn the remains of the body in the small fireplace of her cabin.
The next day, not seeing the old master, Celia's lover betrays her going to denounce the young slave as being responsible for the disappearance of the old man. In a final escape attempt Celia offered a dozen nuts to the meter’s grandson in exchange for helping to remove the remains of the body in the forest. Convicted of murder by a civil jury, Celia's confession was accepted as part of the trial while showing some inconsistency in her testimony regarding Newson's murder.
Being pregnant and fragile Celia physically could not have been able to cut and carry so much wood in her cabin to make the body of the old man disappear. Her lover Georges, accomplice in the murder, would be responsible for the dismemberment of the old man and Celia lied during his trial to protect him. Following Celia's murder and arrest, Georges disappeared without ever leaving a trace.
During the trial, Celia's lawyer argued self-defense against the assault of a rapist, referring to an 1845 law making it illegal "to take a woman against her will by force or threat," stipulating that the law should apply to both white and slave women.
Request which was refused by the judge of the time William Hall who even advocated that a slave had no human and legal right to resist her master even in the context of sexual violence (unbelievable but true ..) The jury pronounced Celia guilty of murder and sentenced her to death by hanging after the birth of her newborn baby. Celia was hanged on December 21, 1855.
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