Celia, a Slave

by McLaurin, Melton A.

• ISBN13: 9780380719358
• ISBN10: 0380719355
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-10-09
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publications

Summary

In 1850, fourteen-year-old Celia became the property of Robert Newsom, a prosperous and respected Missouri farmer. For the next five years, she was cruelly and repeatedly molested by her abusive master--and bore him two children in the process. But in 1855, driven to the limits of her endurance, Celia fought back. And at the tender age of eighteen, the desperate and frightened young black woman found herself on trial for Newsom's murder--the defendant in a landmark courtroom battle that threatened to undermine the very foundations of the South's most cherished institution. Based on court records, correspondences and newspaper accounts past and present, Celia, A Slave is a powerful masterwork of passion and scholarship--a stunning literary achievement that brilliantly illuminates one of the most extraordinary events in the long, dark history of slavery in America.

Table of Contents

Introduction	xi
Chapter One BEGINNINGS	1	(15)
Chapter Two THE CRIME	16	(22)
Chapter Three INQUISITION	38	(24)
Chapter Four BACKDROP	62	(18)
Chapter Five THE TRIAL	80	(24)
Chapter Six THE VERDICT	104	(19)
Chapter Seven FINAL DISPOSITION	123	(14)
Chapter Eight CONCLUSIONS	137	(7)
Notes	144	(22)
Bibliography	166	(9)
Index	175