Celia, a Slave: Chapter 3 Summary & Analysis

On the morning on June 24, 1855, Virginia Newsom and Mary Newsom notice that Robert Newsom is missing. They search around the farm and find nothing. Then they call their neighbors for help. By noon, Robert’s friends and neighbors are hunting in vain for any trace of him. As the search proceeds, someone suggests that George might know something about Robert’s disappearance.

William Powell, one of Robert Newsom’s neighbors, and the self-appointed leader of the search party, finds George and demands information. Powell is, in many ways, like Robert: both came westward in search of cheap farmland, both have children around the same age, and both own slaves.

George is understandably frightened when Powell demands information about Robert Newsom. He wants to protect Celia, but he also fears for his own safety. George probably knows that Celia has threatened to hurt Robert if he rapes her again. Frightened, George tells Powell what he knows, immediately making Celia the prime suspect in Robert’s disappearance.

William Powell finds Celia and immediately confronts her about Robert’s disappearance. To his disappointment, Celia doesn’t crack under pressure: she claims she knows nothing about her master’s whereabouts. Furious, Powell begins to threaten Celia’s life, and the lives of her children. Terrified, Celia tells half the truth: Robert entered her cabin, where Celia struck him with a stick. However, Celia claims that Robert, still alive, staggered out of the cabin.

Powell isn’t satisfied by Celia’s explanation. He continues to yell at her and threaten her children’s lives. Celia is frightened, but she knows she has nothing to lose: if she tells the truth, the Newsoms could kill her on the spot. Fearing for her children, however, Celia promises Powell that she’ll tell the complete truth, on the condition that the Newsoms leave the room. Celia then proceeds to explain what she did. Powell investigates the ashes in the fire, and confirms that a body has been burned. Among the ashes, Virginia finds small objects that belonged to her father, confirming Celia’s gruesome story.

The next morning, June 25, the case of State of Missouri v. Celia, a Slave begins. The inquest is conducted by two justices of the peace: D. M. Whyte and Isaac P. Howe. Howe is a landowner and a slave owner, and while the historical record isn’t conclusive, it’s very likely that Whyte is, too.

That morning, Whyte and Howe issue a warrant for Celia’s arrest, and summon witnesses. The inquest jury consists of local Callaway farmers, all of whom own land and slaves, and all of whom have migrated to Missouri in search of fertile land. It’s likely that most or all of these jurors knew Robert Newsom personally.

The first inquest witness is William Powell, who explains interrogating Celia on the morning after the killing. James Coffee Waynescot testifies that he moves the ashes from Celia’s fire. No other member of Robert Newsom’s family testifies. Celia testifies that she killed Robert and burned the body. However, she insists that she wasn’t trying to kill him, and was defending herself. The inquest jurors quickly arrive at a decision: they urge the county constable to arrest Celia and charge her with murder. Celia is placed in the county jail, where she’ll await her trial.

The local newspapers describe Robert Newsom’s murder as a horrific crime: Robert is characterized as an old man who lives alone. Many of the accounts are factually inaccurate: one report says the murder took place in a kitchen. This report also claims that Celia may have had help from another slave, George, and that she killed “without any sufficient cause.” Many newspapers pick up the story of Robert’s murder, reflecting the widespread fear of slave uprisings in the white community.

George is in a precarious situation. Even though Celia has confessed, the Newsom family suspects him of killing Robert. His survival is dependent on Celia taking sole blame for the murder. But he knows that Celia is going to be subjected to aggressive questioning from white authorities, and might change her story. Afraid that he could be charged with a crime, George flees the farm. This makes reporters conclude that he was involved in the murder.

Slave violence was seen as a constant threat in early white America, especially in the antebellum South. In 1789, Toussaint L’Ouverture led a successful slave uprising in Haiti and slaughtered thousands of white slave owners. Later, during the debate over Missouri statehood, politicians on both sides voiced their fear that slaves would one day outnumber whites in Missouri, leading to an uprising. Then, in 1831, Nat Turner led a slave uprising in Virginia that resulted in the killing of more than fifty white men, women, and children. And as recently as 1850, thirty Missouri slaves were caught arming themselves with knives and guns and plotting an escape—a crime for which their leader was shot.

There’s strong circumstantial evidence that Celia didn’t act alone, considering that Celia is a young teenager and Robert was a grown man. Furthermore, some reporters find it unlikely that Celia could have disposed of Robert’s body all by herself, since she was sick and pregnant.

The Callaway sheriff arranges for two men, Thomas Shoatman and Jefferson Jones, to interrogate Celia about having accomplices. The two men are very different: Shoatman is relatively poor, and owns no property or slaves. Jones, on the other hand, is wealthy, and is one of the county’s leading attorneys. He owns many slaves. Jones takes the leading role during Celia’s questioning.

During the investigation, Jefferson Jones asks Celia to tell the whole truth. Celia explains that Robert Newsom regularly raped her, and that she’d threatened to hurt him if he proceeded to do so. She insists that she had no help in killing him. Jones tells Celia that George has run away, hoping that she’ll implicate him in her crime. Even so, Celia sticks to her story, and reiterates that George wasn’t involved. There are thus two possibilities: first, Celia is telling the truth; second, Celia and George did kill Robert together, but Celia is still fiercely loyal to George.

In the weeks following the killing, Harry Newsom becomes furious with the local newspapers for misreporting the details of the story. He writes an angry letter to the Republican, a popular newspaper, pointing out that the murder didn’t take place in a kitchen. However, he doesn’t correct the single biggest error in the Republican’s account: that Celia killed without cause. His reason is very simple: he doesn’t want to broadcast the fact that his father was raping his slave. In short, Harry focuses on the facts but ignores the motive altogether, setting the tone for Celia’s trial.