-Stumbaugh- 1

Stumbaugh Tanner C

Thomason

HIST&136

Celia Justified

In this essay I will attempt to give my opinion on Celia killing Robert Newsome. In

addition to that, I will be considering the roles that the violence of Celia, Luke Towns, and John

Wealey played.

To answer the question Was Celia justified in killing Robert Newsome? I would have

to say yes, I feel that Celia was justified in killing Robert Newsome due to the sheer amounts of

sexual torture she was put through (torture may be a bit of an over statement, but its the best

word that describes her whole situation). With that being said, I feel that she was completely

rational for defending herself; though she was not intending to murder Thomason that night, I

dont feel that it was justified for her to have been put to death. I digress from the tangent that I

went on about her being put to death; Celia was justified completely in my opinion. She was

under the pressure from her lover, not to let this man have intercourse/rape with her, and she

begged Newsome that if not forever, than just when she was pregnant. This is a direct reasoning

why I believe that she was justified in killing Robert Newsome Whether or not Virginia and

Mary attempted to intervene on Celias behalf, Newsomes behavior did not change. He

continued to make sexual demands of Celia. Driven by Newsomes unceasing sexual advanced

and Georges demand that she force Newsome to stop having sexual relations with her, Celia

directly confronted her master sometime on or immediately before June 23, 1855. This directly

shows that he ignored her pleas, and the pressure from George her lover was just too much on
 -Stumbaugh- 2

the poor girl. She did not strike to kill, just to send a warning to Newsome, although she did kill

him I feel that it was wrong to have had her executioned.

In this section of the essay I will be attempting to answer what role did violence play in

maintaining order on the plantation? while using Celia, Luke Towns, and John Wealey as

examples. Starting off with Luke Towns he wasnt abused that much in order to maintain the

work at the plantation, but he was traded as if he were some kind of item Mr. Towns parents

were owned by Governor Towns, whose name was taken by all the children born on the

plantation; he states that he was placed on the public blocks for sale, and was purchased by a Mr.

Mormon. At the marriage of Mr. Mormons daughter, Sarah, according to custom, he was given

to this daughter as a wedding present, and thus became the slave and took the name of the

Galleys and lived with them until he became a young man at Smithville, Georgia, in Lee

County. These quotes gave me the understanding that even though he had not mentioned any

physical abuse until the war, but being traded so many times would have been horrible for any

person to endure, and would have been traumatizing for him. For Celia violence was a big part in

controlling her, I feel that not only was Newsome using her for sexual pleasure, but also using

that as a way to intimidate her. This is a quote from John Wesley: Before the war came on we

had to fight the Indians back. They tried to sell us in Texas and this is a clear example of some

of the violence that happened before the war. I must formally admit that the articals I read on the

American Memory Project showed much violence at the plantation at all. I might have read some

of the lesser cases from the time, because a lot of the people had experienced violence after the

war, and after they were emancipated. So there was a lot of violence during the time at the

plantations, but the articles/narratives that I looked into did not have any key examples of what

was happening at the time, and place.

 -Stumbaugh- 3

To conclude this essay, I stated that I feel Celia was justified in the killing of

Newsome due to the fact that she had tried getting help from his daughters, and she had plead for

him to cease the sexual abuse. In addition I furthered myself by analyzing the violence that

happened on the plantations during the time, and I injected two narratives from the American

Memory project.