Celia, A Slave读书报告.docx

Yanze LiSum 15 HIST 007AEfrosenya LubisichCelia, A Slave final essayJuly 12th 2015Women in antebellum SouthThe book Celia, A Slave, written by Melton Maclaurin, is about the experience of female slave Celia. In 1850, Robert Newsom bought Celia, who was at the age of fourteen, and after five-year long sexual abuse, she finally confronted her master, and killed Newsom with a wooden club. In the course, Celia’s defense lawyer John Jameson tried his best to protect Celia under the name of “self-defense”; however, Celia was still sentenced with first-degree murder and executed by hanging in the public. Celia’s case reflects that slave had almost no human rights since they were not seen as human but property in antebellum South. More significantly, Celia’s case reflects the women’s social status in the pre-civil war America.Firstly, Celia’s story illustrates the relationship between masters and slaves and shows the inhumane treatment of slavery in South. In South, for example Virginia, “slave ownership had long been a mark of social position”(Maclaurin, 11). Robert Newsom owned five male slaves in 1850, and the investment in human chattel brought him with wealth and social status. Newsom’s farm benefitted a lot from agricultural economy. “Major cash crops of hemp, cotton and tobacco”(Maclaurin, 12) all required labor forces in the plantation. Investment in slavery could increase the field yield and brought more wealth. Since masters purchased slaves, slaves were their property, and treated as working tools rather than human beings. In the textbook American Stories, slaves worked “from sunup to sundown, six days a week”(271) under the white overseers. Long working hours and poor working situations were all evidence of inhumane treatments. Since slaves were only considered as purchased property of their masters, they also shared no human rights in other aspect of life. For Celia, she had no right to defend for herself. She could only stand in the defense seats and watching