Celia A Slave Summary

The book, “Celia, A Slave,” is a true story written by Melton A. McLaurin and published by the University of Georgia Press in 1991. McLaurin was an educator at the University of South Alabama where he served several years as Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs before retiring. He is known for writing several articles and books about the American South and race relations. He wrote this book specifically about slavery and how women and men or blacks and whites were divided. Whites were superior in the United States. White men had more power than white women, but blacks had no power at all. He says that Celia’s story was important in showing how blacks were lesser people, but not all situations were handled the same as hers. The book begins

Since there was no churches built yet, religions met in private homes. Religions included Baptists, Methodists, and Cumberland Presbyterians. Celia’s lawyer was also a minister in the Christian church. During the period of Celia’s trial there was much going on in the United States government. This was the antebellum era where the changing point of American was deciding if Kansas would be a slave or non-slave state. Both slave supporters and abolitionists were illegally voting to decipher if Kansas would be free of have slaves. The government, having the Constitution, was not helping the slaves of the south. Instead the government said the blacks would never be United States citizens; they were property of whites. To show wealth in the south whites had to have a farm, slaves, cattle, and crops. The more they had the wealthier they were said to be. During this era the north was industrializing but leaving the south behind. South was using slaves to harvest crops or do domestic work. There was also a cotton boom; therefore more blacks were needed to produce to the demand. Blacks did not have a choice to what they were. The Fugitive Slave Act stated that all blacks should be sent south to be a slave, whether they were free or a

Therefore he seems like the person that would be against slavery. I think he is against slavery because he wrote this book in defense of Celia. Any other author would not have done it the same as he did. An author that supported slavery would have been more descriptive of Celia’s rapes or might have made it sound like it was a joke or fun for Newsome. The organization of the book is chronological order. It begins with the description of the Robert Newsome and his family and how they got where they were in the 1850s. It proceeds to the crime and why Celia did it. Following the murder, the book explains the questioning of Celia and George. Coinciding with the era, the author describes what is happening in the rest of the United States government and within the states of Missouri and Kansas. He finishes with the final decision of the court. In my honest opinion, I did not like the book; not because of the content, but because very much of the content was repeated. I also did not like how the author inserted an entire chapter about the background of the United States in the middle of the book. It threw my train or thought off and I was not sure about what I was reading. Instead of putting it in the middle, it could have been in the beginning and reworded. The beginning chapter could have been split and added into other chapters because when it talked about the lawyer Jameson, which was not needed until the trial