by staving off the mexican army long enough to allow the cause to build their own army and a strategy. texas became its own independent nation, the republic of texas, for a couple of years. c-span3. >> each week american history tv sits in on a lecture with one of the nation's college professors. you can watch the classes every saturday evening at 8:00 p.m. and midnight eastern. next, professor martha jones talked about the mid-19th century court case of celia, a female slave who killed her master after repeated sexual assaults. the class discusses what options she may have had, and the involvement of her fellow slaves and her master's white neighbors

in her court case. is about an hour and 20 minutes. today we will continue the discussion we were having, particularly the experiences of slave women. look at thence to case of harriet jacobs, one of the best remembered of the slave narratives. us to thatoduces dimension of slavery that is exemplified, and we might say central to the experience of slave women and that is sexual violence. we will come back to discuss jacobs in relation to today's case, celia. we also talked about wpa narratives and the extent to which some issues, including

sexual violence -- violence generally, and sexual violence in particular -- was rather muted in the slave narratives. toe we have the opportunity take another pass at this question, to try to see this dimension of slavery through the experience of celia. you have all begun to see in your readings for today, there are many ways in which the record and the evidence upon which we rely to discover, explore, and understands the case of celia is a challenging record to make use of. part of our work today will be to talk about the evidence in the celia case, how it is we recover from what is in essence the record of a trial -- rather

fragmentary, carefully, idiosyncratically assembled through testimony, written and oral, arguments and conclusions of judges. that, mixed with newspaper demographicome material like census returns, how we take this fragmentary evidence and try to think in thoroughgoing ways about celia's experience, but also how we can think critically about the evidence we use, what it can tell us and perhaps what it cannot tell us about celia's story. mcmoran's book and that is the popular book links story, butf celia's i want to sketch out that narrative for the group as his of our discussion today.

again, this comes as a fragmentary narrative, one driven by the court record, the legal artifacts in the case. first, there is very little for youngsay about celia's life. we do not meet her until she is how old? do you remember? anybody? 14 years old, right? she is 14 years old when she first appears to us. she's a slave woman and she is purchased by robert newsom, a small farmer in the county of callaway, the town of full in lton in missouri. and almosts celia,

from the very moment of that encounter, our story is framed is verywe learn celia , someexually assaulted say even in the journey back to lton, but certainly very quickly after they arrived at his farm. what is this place to which celia had come? we know that he is a recent widow were. -- widower. his children are in his household. a small farmer. this is not a plantation setting. this is not a large scale enterprise. at most, he owned five people in addition to celia. by 1860, he will own just celia

and one other, a man named george we will meet later. he is typical in missouri. he makes his way as a subsistence farmer, raising crops and foodstuffs for his family, but also livestock. he isis some suggesttion also a producer -- there is some suggestion he is also a producer of whiskey. she came to do domestic labor in the house, but part of what we know it's over the next five years she will become regularly and frequently the target of new some's sexual assaults. newsom will build a small cabin homeelia 60 paces from his . far away, but not too far away, as we will learn, for him to visit. ,he will come to live there

herself, and one and another child that she will bear. vineren we come to know as in the story,r on and in 1855, celia is again pregnant for the third time. as the record explains, celia, is sick. she is pregnant again. whether sick is a metaphor for pregnant, she is having a difficult pregnancy. does not wantlia to abide or acquiesce going forward newsom's sexual advances. she will do is speak to new some's daughters. she asks the women in his household to intervene on her behalf, to in some way speak to

their father and see if he want , but they have no success, it seems. and then celia has her own confrontation with them, and for our purposes, the core of the story. do not come to see me. i do not want to have sexual relations with you. i will not have sexual relations with you. in 1865, heonight will come those 60 steps from his home to her cabin, he will confront her, speak to her, is, inh her in what mind,. a threat

club.cks up a she strikes him several times until he falls unconscious and is dead in her cabin. what do you do if you are celia? what do you do. for a wild, she is done. not anticipated, has not but now to kill him, she realizes he is dead. the question now becomes, how should she deal with that fact? she attempts to conceal the evidence. body, and overis the next six hours, she will

attempt to dispose of the evidence of what transpired. so much so, that by the next morning, very little is left. ashes, bone fragments, but celia is confident enough that she has concealed her act that is morning breaks, she continues about the ordinary routine of the household. she makes her way to the kitchen to begin to prepare breakfast for the newsom family. children awake. their father is missing, and a search begins for newsom. -- twos to major phases major phases. initially they searched the farm itself. had an accident? neighbors join, and the questioning begins. the informal, but important interrogation of people on the farm, one of whom is newsom's

grandson, who relates he helped distribute the ashes of celia's fire on the path leading to the stable on the farm, and george, the enslaved man owned by newsom . george relates -- we will come back to this -- george relates that perhaps they want to search in the vicinity of celia's cabin. herself, as we know, a story.vely tells initially she denies any understanding of newsom's whereabouts, any knowledge of what happened to him. she begins to piece together a story. of her act ares grave, as we know. story,ins to tell a first about newsom having put

his head through the window and having struck him, his disappearing into the light, but it appears that under duress, under the threat that in fact she may be separated from her reveals to these neighbors, local farmers that come to investigate the whereabouts of newsom, she reveals to them out of your shot of the newsom children, she reveals she struck him dead and disposed of his body in the fireplace. we follow the story then as it makes its way through the now legal frame. there is an inquest. who appearedrs before the investigation, newsom herselfren, and celia

will give evidence, leading to the formal indictment of celia for newsom's murder. there will be a trial. these parties will come forward, with one exception. do you remember who does not testify at the trial? who does not testify? celia herself does not testify at the trial, because pursuant to missouri law, as is typical in the united states in the defendantentury, no is given the opportunity to give testimony at trial. they were deemed to be too self interested. many parties we have become familiar with do testify, and they do tell in a sense, celia's story, celia's version of

events. one thing that becomes clear -- the core of celia's story is never in dispute. there is never a question about therelationship to newsom, long-standing sexual abuse to ,hich she has been subjected and even how with her third child she has become sick and tried to avoid and fend off , even's sexual advances before striking him with the club. is one we see in parts adopted by the local farmers who investigated the case, by the members of the newsom's family, and ultimately by the court. this narrative is one on which everyone comes to agree.

celia is ultimately found guilty by a local jury. we will come back to the jury dynamics in our discussion. she is sentenced to death by hanging. is a curious interlude, that i think we know too little about still. of the jaild it out and avoids the initial hanging because she has been secreted out of the jail and taken to a hiding place. who is responsible for that is one of the mysteries of celia's case, but ultimately we know she is returned to the jail. a new execution date is set. the state court of appeals hears preliminarily the possibility of celia's appeal. ask if the high

court will stay or postpone an execution temporarily until there is a formal review of the legal proceedings and the answer is no. the high court sees no legal merits, no likelihood that celia will prevail on appeal, they permit her execution to go forward, and she is hanged in fulton, missouri. so, i want to come back with you today to revisit this case through some of the scenes we have been developing over the course of the last week, come back to celia. it is its own story, but also a window into the experience of role of sexuale assault in the context of slavery, but also to look at the law and legal

culture play a critical role .ere in 1850's missouri judges, lawyers, grand jury's, , investigators, witnesses, all playing a critical role in determining, if you will, in framing how we story,nterpret celia's how we might come to conclude whether celia was justified. wasmber, the case turns on celia entitled to assert self-defense when she acted to put off this man, to resist his sexual assault? was she entitled to that sort of self defense and the face of the imminent harm that newsom was surely going to force upon her as he had before, or as a slave withoutas celia

recourse? we know in life she has recourse . before the law, does she have recourse? those will be the questions. three questions. first, i want to come back to harriet jacobs. the best perhaps remembered of enslaved women. she is so well remembered in part because she pens an extraordinary narrative, the book we come to know as "isn't incidents in the life of a slave girl," published under the pen name linda brent. we saw that as a form of testimony, complicated testimony.

it went through jacobs's on concerns about the reputation as a free black woman when she publishes this narrative. recall,ead, you will very carefully to discern the way that jacobs allows us to something of the persistence, the presence of ofual assault, the threat sexual assault in slave women's lives. -- ther the story pseudonym for the father of manbs's owner, the way this kept his household in edenton, north carolina over the course threatening, almost

ultimately have access to jacobs's body, to have sexual relations with her. it is so present in her life, we , shein the broad strokes will ultimately secret herself away for a dramatic seven years in the attic of her isndmother's home until she finally able to make her way north into freedom. how do we compare these two stories? onobs on one hand and celia the other? compareways should we them? in what ways are the stories similar stories, and in what way are they contrasting stories? katie. >> [indiscernible]

jacobs and celia had, at least jacobs had her grandmother and other family members. her whiteappeal to lover to protector, but celia did not have that. she had george maybe. >> [indiscernible] given the fact that she was so much more isolated in her environment. >> good. what about other folks? how would you compare these two women? these were not put up by

accident. on the left you have the title page from jacobs's book. on the right, we have a justice of the peace's righting -- testimony.> celia's i think maybe i have -- that was not it. down on the right, you can see -- yeah, andrea? >> [indiscernible] she would have added different outcome for child or not. >> good. was obviouslyobs

written by herself, so her story we kind of no. know's story is what we from court cases and testimonies , which can be questionable. .> the question of literacy i will come back to the question of isolation. literacy is one way we can talk dramatically about how the stories in full, but the capacity to tell them or remember them. shebs is literate, even if is a slave woman in north carolina. we remember this becomes part of the drama between her and dr. because part of his terror is to pass her notes. >> i saw a similarity between them. they really did not have

anything to lose except mccain to their children. jacobs, she could have stayed in for attic, if it was not the safety of her children. and for celia, it was not until the interrogator was threatening her children that she felt she had to cave in. i think that were not for the children, they would have done anything to get out of the situation. >> very good. we have two notes of difference and one important piece of singularity. we will come back to that. the literacyo question, we know that jacobs have the capacity to read and write in this plays a role, perhaps we would say in her capacity to have a critical consciousness, whether it is her own ability to read the notes of dr. flint's or to read the bible and develop a critique of slavery and the conditions under

which she lived. jacobs is someone for whom literacy played a key role in her lifetime, and are us as historians, we know that her literacy is an extraordinary consequence, because we not only have her narrative, but we have her correspondents over many years. we are able to uncover, in a sense, it kind of new one for harriet jacobs -- a kind of nuance for harriet jacobs that eludes us in celia's. case case.celia's her testimony, her confession, we realize that this came through a very complex channel before it comes to us. narrates the story.

a justice of the peace listens to the story, writes his own interpretation, if you will, of her words. we are right to be skeptical about this sort of artifact, precisely because we know celia herself could not read and review the document, even though somehowggests she assented to the document. a number of you mentioned isolation. here are isolation in celia's story takes a number of forms, doesn't it? she lives in a small town where she has regular access -- we will come back to her family, but in the course of her freeo-day life, african-americans, other white people in edenton, jacobs has a kind of world that becomes

critical to understanding how tor andists the doc ultimately how she escapes. it is that proximity to other people. contrast, you are absolutely right. what her life was like, we can't say. we do not know. we certainly know when she makes that brief migration to fulton and to the farm, she is clearly without family, without acquaintances, and the isolation of that farm, many miles from downtown fulton means she does not have the access to allies, to information, to resources jacobs had. that is most vividly underscored by the question of family. we know the role that family

powerful role that family plays for harriet jacobs, her grandmother and her uncle, who not only provide psychological support, but they for jacobs'ss critique of her own condition. she has these kind of family interlocutors who are critical to her development critique and her resistance to dr. flint over time. , unclear.lia ine slaves in that household 1850. only two, celia and george, by is killed.wsom what sort of community would that have been for celia? transient?

we see slave people there and then absent. were they sold? did they run away? we can't know. but transient. we can see the relationship with immodestd how that was and has a different context to jacobs. pointed to the context that they are both mothers. jacobs secrets not only toking secure her own liberty away from but thinkingna, very strategically about how to secure the liberty of her children. celia on the other hand, with

two small children, and there is that moment that seems to be the in ashe gives herself up futile, but still powerful block the threat that if she won't tell the story, she will be separated from her children. the fate of one's relationship to one's children -- i think that is what you were getting at, siobhan. similarity.werful here, on one hand, we might and harrietcelia jacobs as two very powerful narratives, both of which speak to the pervasiveness, the that is duress

disproportionately visited on slave women. these are two powerful examples. but as we've seen all semester, our work is partly not to reduce all slave women, all black women to one experience, and we can appreciate the comparison the ways in which time and place and circumstances are essential to explaining how it is that , liberationedom comes by way of hiding by way of fugitive status by way of riding , in ating, and for celia sense, liberty comes through force, that club, that violent confrontation. two responses to what one might

say at the core is a shared experience, and at the same time, and experience framed differently and has, as we know, vastly different outcomes. so, we are going to shift now. part of the way we have been talking about celia's case, particularly in how we compare her experience to harriet jacobs 's, and it allows us to talk world and acial very open-ended and ambitious way. we want to underscore the way onceonce celia's story, celia's case enters the legal territory, the framing becomes much more narrow, more specialized, more determined by the strictures are the questions

-- or the questions of investigators, of judges, of than by the whole of human experience. while there are things we may know, i want to talk a little bit about how we approach the evidence, if you will, and how legal culture thinks about the evidence. we're going to look at the transcriptions of some of the material from celia's trial record. juncture pause at this to give appreciation to a former eu of them undergraduate -- u of m graduate, alice. a senior thesis, and excellent senior thesis, on the history of the memory of the celia case.

recordnscribed the trial , the mimeographed material, and it is her transcriptions we will look at over the next few minutes. you all will appreciate allison, i know, as we wrestle with transcribing. spent a year, first transcribing and then analyzing this material and she continues today to work on the celia case, case at yale. what we have in the record are some testimonies prior to the trial, some of the inquest, some of the figures, local farmers who have come to the newsom farm, have talked to celia, have

talked to the family, have talked to george. they have provided sworn statements to the inquest body on whether or not celia should be indicted for murder. william, we know is a local farmer, tells us something of what we know about this important, but again, hard to figure out figure, and that is george. i do not know about you, but case foread celia's the first time, george is one of the most intriguing, important, but difficult to situate figures. and you read some of his story 'sd milton mcmoran interpretation of george, but today we will come back to the evidence and i will ask you how you think we should understand the role of george in the story

based upon the testimony we have. -- au are william powell local farmer. he is relating his confrontation with george, the day after newsom disappeared. i asked his negro boy george where he thought he was. that he did not believe it was worthwhile to hunt for him anywhere except close around the house. for he had reasons to believe he was not far off. i told him he had better go and show us where the old man was. he stated he believed the last walking yet done was along this half. that is the path between celia's cabin in the house. i believed that he had been -- in the-- or killed

negro cabin. here we have powell. george is not given a statement at this point of the preceding. we hear his words filtered through powell's ideas, but we have the suggestion that what? that george has somehow, if not implicated celia, he has certainly implicated celia's cabin, right? demise,ite of newsom's this will lead powell and others to more seriously scrutinize the area but morelia's cabin, importantly to scrutinize celia herself. trial,also testifies at and in the record we have a

transcription of his oral testimony. here, a cross examination -- which is to say as he is being examined by the attorney for -- he againn speaks speaks of george. wheret into the cookhouse celia was. i told her she knew where her master was, that george had set enough to make the believe she knew where he was. she denied it." more deeplys even implicated, even more deeply implicated. now relating again his interpretation, his memory of his first confrontation with celia in the kitchen. i told her she knew where her master was, that george and set enough to make me believe she knew where he was.

what he toldxactly us just prior that george said. george said something about celia's cabin, but you can see how powell and others investigating this case begin to andern that between celia george might be a space in which they can insert some doubt, that might confusion , mightm more evidence even net them a confession. andbeginning to play celia george off one another in a perhaps, embellishing, what george has said to him. remains resolute that she had nothing to do with this.

finally, jefferson jones -- you will remember he is a neighboring farmer, a large farmer in fulton. his farm is adjacent to that of the newsom family. he is one of the first people outside the family itself on the scene stop his testimony plays important role both in the indictment of celia and importantly in her conviction. slaveholder in fulton. "saidal he testified -- he was standing in the middle of the room when she struck him." this is celia. i asked her whether she had told anyone that she intended to kill him." he has a theory that this is perhaps premeditated.

"she said that she never had. georgia runoff, and that she might as well tell if he had anything to do with killing the old man. she said that george need not have runoff, for he knew nothing about it. i ouster if george had advised her to kill the old man." hadonly that she premeditated, but it was george who told her to kill newsom. "she said she never had, said that herge had told her would have nothing more to do with her if he did not quit -- if she did not quit the old man. said that george had --" yes? like he pressured her to have no other option but to

kill the master. [indiscernible] the first case was by the master, the second kid she was unsure, right? >> we are probably most unsure about celia's third child. there is a question whether that their child was followed by newsom or george. there is a strong suggestion there is an intimate relationship between george and celia. this notion that george has urged celia that she should avoid newsom. that there is a more feel kind of relationship, that they are friends like brother and sister, and george bestoking out for celia's interests, but it seems more likely that he had been staying with her, that they had an intimate relationship of a sort,

and there is no west and when we get to the testimony of jones -- no question when we get to the testimony of jones that celia is reinforcing the theory that certainly george played a role in the story, although she is quite resolute still, even here in her confrontations with jones, that george is not didsed her to harm newsom, not conspire with her to kill newsom, did not have a physical disposing of the body. he goes on "struck with the right hand on the right side of eye out stir if george had not struck the old man from behind. not."id, he did

again, jones has this theory that george has a role and celia remains consistent throughout many opportunities she has to tell her own story, she remains resolute that george did not role. when i look back on this , whymony and i ask myself do i still have questions about george? i think there is no fact -- he's only if this is true for you -- there is no fact that is more , that one in which that georgecelia has run off. did you know the reaction? how might we interpret george

running off at this juncture? what you think that shapes my initial impression of george? yeah? >> [indiscernible] know.t it just made it seem like he did have something to do with it or andas guilty of something, for me, it was kind of messed up if him and celia are together, why would he point out that mr. at her cabin. if it was me, i would probably be like, i don't know. i was point her out like that. i don't know what to think about george. >> i mean --

what -- can you point to something? is there something in this testimony that leads you --celia tells you over and over again that she did not. why do you think so? when the master died. he did not run away when the master was there, but he dies and george runs away. she would need help from a man. i guarantee that she feared her master, so i think that george helped her out. >> all right, i see a lot of hands. i'm going to work my way across the room. >> [indiscernible]

some type of help. for any man, like any man in manery, i would think this is sexually abusing my girl, and hey, you can't do anything about it, but when i have the opportunity, i'm pretty sure -- [indiscernible] not want tond i do get caught, so i will help my girl get rid of the body. >> chiffon -- i am coming this way. siobhan. >> i think everyone was to believe that a woman is not strong enough to have the power to kill. i think what the court is 92 -- i think it -- what the court is trying to do, i think they have already established the threat of a black man. haveor a black woman to

that power to kill a master whole othere a issue. i think what the court is trying to do is justify the situation, saying it was a strong, aggressive black slave man who did it versus a slave woman that did it. hehink with george -- already knew her anyway, but if that point when she was in the court, she had a chance to get revenge on him it she wanted to she wanted to. she might say anything to get out of the situation. at that point, he really was at the mercy of celia. i think for self-preservation, he did the best thing for himself by running away. >> ok. we're going to come to marley. >> [indiscernible] sense.n't make

i guess he was covering for her. it does seem to me like -- i was about my age. i am not sure i get cool the dead body of an old man p --ull -- pull the body of a old man up. >> [indiscernible] know.t capable of would be pulling a dead body if you had to. with george, i think celia needed him out of the case. she was very attached to her children and there were only two black adults at this family farm. i can't imagine what she would

feel like if they told her that he ran, because where would the children go? >> ok. got one here. >> since they were the only to adult slaves -- we do not know if they had a relationship, but if they did, he would be the she had and i think she would've done anything to protect him even if he had run away. -- if he did run away -- i do not think that implies guilt necessarily because there are only two dev slaves on this farm.- two slaves on this that is just the way the system of slavery works. i do not think they would have

seen george's innocent anyway. i think he would have run away to save himself and that does not necessarily hide guilt. that fear is still really prevalent today. really, like,'t have the means to represent themselves in court tend to do things because they feel like they have no other option. , they kind of say things that are not necessarily true when they are investigating to get the responses they want. that could be something jefferson jones was saying. look, george ran away. we want you to tell us everything you know. we're going to pin it on you. that was just a way to get a confession out of her. >> good.

couple more? everyone has different ideas, but i just question that -- she had, like, six hours to get everything clean. where was george? came homeossibly have and that happened? she did have known that it, so it made him afraid. and he did not want to have anything to do with it. >> good. lindsay, one more? >> i'm curious. why would there have been a fire in her cabin in june? >> the fire in the cabin? cooking, first and foremost. them to have a

fire, although the quantity of ashes turns out to be suspicious. i'm going to move on. i'm glad to know that you all by reading this share some of my nests --nsettled about the role of george. let's remember all we have in terms of evidence are the testimonies of those neighboring us whatwho narrate for they say george said, what they say celia said. and so, it would be a mistake, i think, to have too much confidence in this testimony. little testimony, we've seen the ways in which these investigators are twisting, embellishing,

emphasizing some facts in an effort to extract confessions, in an effort to secure submission. as readers, as historians we read this with caution, right? just because jones tells us that george has run off -- look at what he says. "i told her that george had run off." he doesn't say george had run off. "i told her that george had run off." and we're not surprised in the telling of that, true or false, is an effort to break celia down and encourage her to implicate george. just for the reasons you suggest, right? it could be read as george

in thisbandoned celia extraordinary moment. how do we deal with this as historians? powerfulo say, it is testimony. it is provocative testimony. it certainly shapes our ideas, our perceptions of what transpires and the role that george played. as we have done in other examples, we have to think critically and one way to do that is to look for new evidence. to look for alternative evidence that might help us fill in some of the blanks, right? piece together the puzzle of george. -- you all know last weekend was it even last weekend? it was last wednesday, i spent the day with the celia project working group working on the history of the celia case and we visited fulton, missouri.

one of the places we visited was the kingdom of callaway historical society, where they did have the trial record, and we already have the trial record from the court archives, but they had the state records of robert newsom. it was interesting. we know that he was killed in bee of 1855, but it would necessary for his heirs and the legal representatives of his estate to take an inventory to accumulate all his assets and and give his estate to his various heirs, children and grandchildren and the like. records of that legal proceeding, which is in a sense a companion outside of the prosecution of celia for murder, the original survive in the kingdom of callaway inventory.

, know you cannot see it here -- toward thettom bottom here is the inventory of slaves in the household. there is one negro man, george, $900. at so, george and not disappeared at all -- had not disappeared at all. when it comes time to inventory the estate, we find george, and when we continue through the record, we find george was sold. he was sold to a slaveholder in nearby slovene county for more $1190. was valued, he had not disappeared at all. , for me, this changes things a lot and how i read the

testimony that comes from the local farmers. they might have said george ran off, but it appears george had not disappeared at all, and george is ultimately as caught -- in one way by the aftermath of newsom's killing as celia. he is not charged or convicted murder, but he is sold away. he is sold away. from the community he knows, from the household that he knows, from the people he knew best, george now is sold away. , right -- itges changes how we read that testimony and helps us appreciate what is wrong in the evidence.

people have layers of stories up on stories -- stories up on stories. unraveling the mystery of the celia case requires us to reach beyond the trial record and read it alongside these other trauma to as a way of perhaps suggesting how celia and george and their own ways were caught -- in their own ways were caught .n the vice of this household they are both caught up in the story in harsh ways. i will come back to this. in thee inventory -- inventory, below george, there are two that other children, and they are celia's children.

jane, three years old, and a , three yearsney old, and jane one-year-old, both valued at $150 each. with the sale of george, alongside is the sale of celia's daughters out of the newsom house told as well. to adddence allows us new layers and think with important nuance about this case. one more important question, slavery and the law of rape. let's go back to the trial. part of what you know is at the end of this trial, the trial judge will instruct the jurors in this case. what does it mean to instruct the jurors? here, jurors are not legal professionals.

they don't have special knowledge of the law, be it of rape, murder, self-defense. role is at court's the end of the hearing of the evidence to instruct the jury, to educate the jury, to direct the jury about the law so that jurors can weigh the evidence and ultimately the question of celia's guilt against the law as the court instructs it. i want to look again at the actualaw and then at the juries instructions in this case. we learn from this the ways in which the powerful role a local interpretation of the law, the powerful role that plays in determining celia's fate. celia's lawyers have attempted to introduce evidence and argue

that celia, while she killed newsom, is not guilty of first-degree murder. why? because by missouri law, an individual who understands him or herself to be the imminent victim of a felony, to be in imminent fear of bodily harm, has the right to respond to that in self-defense. while shent is celia, killed newsom, did so defending herself against new sums -- felony, commission of a rape in missouri. here is the statute that is key to determining whether or not celia was in fact an imminent fear of being raped. let's read it together.

what are the key words here for our consideration? , unlawfully against her will. any woman, unlawfully against her will. how do you read this as it applies to celia? >> that makes the assumption the woman in question has will. no such role exists. i think that is why the court did not recognize her self-defense claim. >> good.

so it is any woman against her will. i think one of the key questions here is that the court must implicitly resolve for itself before it instructs the jury, is celia a woman with will, a slave woman? >> [indiscernible] i think that is incompatible with the idea of slavery at the time. the slave order -- owner can order something to the slaves. those two things are incompatible. >> here, every person, including newsom, upon conviction. convictedom have been in the same local court for the defilement of celia? yes? it was less about

against her will and more about ie unlawfully part because know there was that dehumanization of slaves, but i think the point was more as a slave that she did not have the totection under the law like, being against her will was counted as rape because she was property. therefore he could do whatever he wanted. more about her will and more about whether it was unlawfully against her will. >> excellent close reading. judge in central missouri in the 1850's who has to read this language and ask himself, what is the state of the law? how should i interpret the law in this specific instance? a slaveholding man and a slave woman. is the will of the master absolute such that celia has no

will, no will to resist? is the phrase "any woman" implicitly qualified? does it mean any free woman, any white woman? all of these things are questions. in celia's example, are in the hands of a local judge. how does it play out? prior to charging the jury, giving the jury instructions, the judge solicits from lawyers from both sides, the prosecutors and the defense lawyer, their recommendations for charges to be proposed. here is the wonderful manuscript document, which i have not asked you to read because we have the excellent transcriptions. this is the jury instruction, one of the jury instructions.

the key jury instruction proposed by celia's team. i note this instruction is refused by the judge. he declined to direct the jury in this way. but the defense argues if the jury believes from the evidence celia did kill move some -- newsom, but the killing was necessary to protect herself against forced sexual intercourse and there was imminent danger of such forced sexual intercourse being accomplished by newsom, they will not find her guilty of murder in the first-degree. here is an interpretation of the law that brings together that statute we looked at with self-defense and makes an argument, provides a frame for how the jury might interpret the evidence. this is the argument made by celia's lawyers.

what we recognize is this is celia's story, the story she has but over time, bit by bit, ultimately again and again, is one in which she understood herself to be in imminent danger of a forced sexual encounter with newsom. when she finds herself in such danger, she acts in self-defense, right, not to intentionally kill newsom, but to defend herself against sexual assault. testimony, here is celia's critique of her circumstances that makes its way into this proposed jury instruction. let's look at the instruction the court actually delivers. the habit of in having intercourse with the defendant, his slave, and went

to her cabin on the night he was killed to have intercourse with her or for any antiperspirants -- other purpose and while he was standing on the floor talking to her she struck him with a stick which was a dangerous weapon and knocked him down and struck him again after he fell, and killed him either by blow -- by either blow, it is murder in the first-degree. jury extraordinary instruction in part because it is so specific to the facts. the court has, by way of the prosecutors proposal, adopted a version of the law that almost is a blueprint for celia's story, except that the counter,n is absolutely counter to the conclusion the defense team has offered. in case the jury is not clear, defendant had no right to kill him because he came to her cabin and was talking to her about having sexual intercourse with her or anything else. or anything else.

do you see the way in which in this moment the court, by way of the crafting of jury instructions, is now closing the possibilities? narrows the possibility for the outcome in this trial. very little space in which this jury might maneuver if it otherwise expected to exonerate celia because the court says if she did the act, there is no defense available to her. and we know she did the act. yes, peter. >> [indiscernible] was it particular to? enslavedarticular to women, is peter's question. it is a good question. that is not quite a court decision.

the jury instruction is powerful and a powerful framing, but the decision is ultimately a verdict of guilty rendered by the jury itself. to your central question, is this particular to celia, to enslaved women? what do you think when you look at the language? what do you think? this is particular to enslaved women or is this an instruction that could be given in the case of any woman? yeah. .> particular to celia we don't know about other women. we would have to look at them. this is so particular to her case. >> we would have to look broadly at other cases.

there are other few cases in missouri in this period. we could look at this alongside similar cases in other jurisdictions. part of what we have learned is this is a moment in which not only missouri but other slaveholding states, the most memorable mississippi, are also grappling with the question of rape of enslaved women and concluding this sort of configuration is particular to enslaved women and specific to women not free. there is the qualifier. "the defendant who was his slave." we sense the way the court is bringing in this fact even though it is not expressly provided for in the law, developing a kind of common law around slavery and sexual violence. yeah. >> i think the theme in the jury instruction also predates this.

the testimony where it was said george ran away, as we can tell, that was false. i think that was because it fed into the social influences we see here. not only doesn't implicate a black man as being violent, which was a popular image, but to grant celia's claim of self-defense would also set legal precedent that would have to be recognized not only in the state of missouri but in courts nationwide. slavery asunravel being a dehumanizing institution. >> one of the questions of this choice by the judge leaves us with is, what would be the implications to conclude otherwise? -- readings of

others have suggested to us the ways in which this sort of story, the circumstance that begins with the sexual assault ,f the slave woman by an owner is an all too common story. to open the door to the possibility that enslaved women might be able to formally charge their owners with rape, seek trotskyist tradition -- prosecution for sexual assault, and even more so be able to defend themselves, opens the door. it appears to open a door that this court is not willing to open, and i think no court is willing to open in the 1850's. a couple more things. to talk about where we are with the celia case.

you have read the 1991 book storypopularized celia's and made it possible for us to teach celia, that the work continues. celia is still not as well remembered as that other 1850's missouri case involving slavery, dred scott versus sanford, the case we have mentioned and many of you know about in which an enslaved man sues for his freedom having been brought to free territory. ultimately decided by the supreme court that he is a slave. the dred scott case is one we study and read and situate in the cannon of slavery and law. quite made it to that sort of space. but there are important local figures who have worked to preserve the memory of celia. i want to point to some of these in closing.

left, you see margot bush wilson. was anow deceased but long-standing and much admired attorney, civil rights attorney, in st. louis, missouri. she learned of celia's story and became much admiring of celia and wanted to work to help remember celia and bring her story to like. -- to light. she commissioned in the 1990's the portrait you see on the left, an oil portrait of celia done by the artist on the right, solomon thurman, in st. louis who the celia project met this past weekend. we were privileged to meet him and learn more about his work on silly as -- celia's portrait. here is a moment where we have local figures working in important ways to preserve and bring celia's story to light.

this portrait hangs briefly in the missouri historical society before it becomes part of margot bush wilson's personal collection. poem market bush wilson writes, the tribute to celia, gives you a sense of the purpose of her memory for margot bush wilson. it is on the one hand about restoring that story to visibility, and extracting it from the historical record and bringing it to light. for market bush wilson, seeley is an inspiration -- celia is an inspiration. we take strength from your courage in our own time. as we face strife, we take strength from your courage. one interpretation is it inspires us to be courageous in our own lifetimes. missouri from about

2005 to 2011 or 2012, local residents gathered on the anniversary of celia's execution to hold a candlelight vigil and pay tribute to her, once again bringing her out from historical obscurity, holding her case up. why celia? these are groups that want to talk about racism in the 21st century, cecilia is part of a narrative -- so celia is part of a narrative from a racism then, racism today. we still have racism in fulton. celia tells a long story of racism in this local community where she lived and died. finally, there have been two stage productions, one locally in fulton and the other in london, england. both dramatizations of celia's story, powerful bringing celia's

story to mass audiences. but in both instances, playwrights taking important creative license to give celia words we know she never spoke. from all the records we have, we have no unmediated words of celia. celia's story reaching large audiences of becoming fictionalized. remember we talked about harriet tubman and the hillary clinton moment when she quotes tubman, the dangers of the fictionalization. with scholarsect coming back to the case is doing the work of trying to understand these new archives, these additional archival materials that go beyond the court record like the newsom estate inventories. we went to the site of the newsom farm. as much as i think i wanted to end by telling you the

historians are the bastion of evidence and social science, that we won't get caught up in romance or memory or myth were fiction when it comes to celia, i will leave you to contemplate team onne which is our what is now federal land in fulton, the site where the the site ofstood, this dramatic moment in the life of celia. all that is left are some foundation stones, old trees, and open fields. historians wanting in some sense to walk that walk, the 60 paces from the house to the cabin, to in some sense try to inhabit celia's world, to try and be closer in some sense to her and her experience.

i think we would all say there was not much evidence here. powerfultraordinary, to walk for an afternoon the walk celia had walked those many years ago. we will stop here. when i see you next time, we will continue with this theme of history, memory, and myth by looking at the case of sojourner truth. you will read the extraordinary biography and look at the ways in which painter tries to pull apart history from myth in the life of the extraordinary figure. thank you all very much. have a great day. i will see you all on thursday. >> join us each saturday evening at 8:00 and midnight for classroom lectures from across the country on different topics and eras of american history. or downloadbsite

them from itunes. >> each week, american history rings youamerica archival films that helpful the story of the 20th century. "mirror of america" offers a of america.h henry ford created the film department to document industrial films. the ford motor company donated over 5000 films to the national archives as a gift to the american people. the national archives produced this documentary that year to show highlights of the ford collection. >> in so many ways, henry ford was a simple man. he liked to go camping with his friends. that is thomas edison behind him. he enj o