That is Sexual Violence. We will come back a little bit to talk about jacobs in comparison to our case today, that of celia. We also talked about wpa narratives, and one of the things we noticed about those narratives is the extent to which some issues, including Sexual Violence violence generally, and Sexual Violence, in particular was rather muted in the slave narratives. And so here, we have with the celia case the opportunity to take another pass at this question, to try to see this dimension of slavery through the experienceli so, why do i say try to see this dimension of slavery . As 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 understand the case of celia is a challenging record to make use of. So 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 a rather fragmentary, carefully, but idiosyncratically assembled group of testimonies, written and oral, arguments of lawyers and conclusions of judges. That, mixed with newspaper reportage, some demographic material like census returns, how we take this fragmentary evidence and try to think in thoroughgoing ways about celias experience, but also how we have to continue to think critically about the evidence that we use, what it can tell us and perhaps what it cannot tell us about celias story. You all have read melton mclaurins book and that is the popular historical booklength treatment of celias story, but i want to sketch out that narrative for the group as his of our discussion today. Again, this comes as a fragmentary narrative, one that is very driven by the court record, the legal artifacts in the case. First, there is very little for us to say about celias young life. We dont meet her in a formal sense in the historical record until she is how old . Do you remember how old she is when she comes into this story . Anybody . 14 years old, right . She is 14 years old when she first appears to us. She is, as we come to understand it, a young enslaved woman in Central Missouri, and she is purchased by robert newsom, a small farmer in the county of callaway, the town of fulton in missouri. He travels and purchases celia, and almost from the very moment of that encounter, our story is framed because we learn celia is very soon sexually assaulted by newsom, some say even in the journey back to fulton, but certainly very quickly after they arrived at his farm. What is this place to which celia has come . We know that newsom is a recent widower. In his household are his children, who are now adults. His daughters, as well as a grandson. Newsom is a small farmer. This is not a plantation setting. This is not a largescale enterprise. At most in 1850, he owned five enslaved people in addition to celia. By 1860, he will own just celia person, aher enslaved man named george whom we will meet later. He is typical in missouri. He makes his way as a subsistence farmer, growing crops and foodstuffs for his family, but also raising livestock. Suggestion insome the evidence that he is also a producer of whiskey. But celia arise not to do agricultural work, not to do farm labor, but she comes to do some household Domestic Labor within this house, but part of what we know is that over the next five years she will become regularly and frequently the target of newsoms Sexual Assaults. Newsom will build a small cabin for celia 60 paces from his home. 60 paces. Far away, but not too far away, as we will learn, for him to visit regularly. She will come to live there in these years herself with then one and then another child that she will bear, likely the children of newsom himself. Children we come to know as vine and as jane later on in the , by 1855, iscelia again pregnant for the third time. As the record explains, celia tells people she is sick. She is pregnant again. Whether sick is a metaphor for pregnancy or, in fact, she is having a difficult pregnancy, it is clear that celia does not want to abide or accommodate or acquiesce again Going Forward to newsoms sexual advances. The first thing she appears to do is to speak to newsoms 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 wont desist, right, from assaulting her, but they have no success, it seems. And then celia has her own confrontation with newsom, and here for our purposes, the core of the story. She seems to advise him, do not come to see me. I do not want to have sexual relations with you. I will not have sexual relations with you. Still, on a june night in 1865, newsom will come those 60 steps celias own parlor to cabin, he will confront her, speak to her, approach her in what is, in celias mind, a suggestion he will sexually assault her, and celia defends herself. She picks up a club. She strikes him once, again, and perhaps many times until he falls unconscious and dead in her cabin. What do you do if you are celia . What do you do . Well, part of what we know is that when she when she retells the story, for a while, she is stunned. She has not anticipated, has not intended to kill newsom. But now, she realizes he is dead. The question now becomes, how should she deal with that fact . We know that she attempts to conceal the evidence of what has transpired. She will take newsoms body, push it into the fireplace of her cabin. She will stoke the fire, and over the next six hours, she will attempt to dispose of the evidence of what transpired. So much so that by morning, very little is left. Some ashes, some bone fragments, but celia is confident enough that she has concealed her act that as 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. Newsoms children awake. Their father is missing, and a search begins for newsom. It takes two major phases. Initially, newsoms children searched the farm itself. Has he wandered off . Has he had an accident . But there is no sign for him. Neighbors joined the search and , the questioning begins. This interrogation, this informal but very important interrogation of people on the farm, one of whom is newsoms grandson, who relates he helped celia distribute the ashes of her fire along the path leading to the stable on the newsom farm. And there is george the enslaved , man owned by newsom. George relates we will come back to his testimony relates that perhaps they want to search in the vicinity of celias cabin. Celia herself, as we know, progressively tells a story. Initially, she denies any understanding of newsoms whereabouts, what might have happened to him. She then begins to piecemeal tell a story. And we understand in a sense why that might have been. The consequences for her act are grave, as we know. And she begins to tell a story, aboutut having newsom having put his head through the window and having struck him, his disappearing into the night, but eventually , it seems, particularly under the threatt is under that, in fact, she may be separated from her children, celia reveals to these neighbors, local farmers who have come to investigate the whereabouts of newsom, she reveals to them out of earshot of the newsom children, she reveals that she, in fact, dead and disposed of his body in the fireplace. We can follow the story then as it makes its way through now the legal frame. There is an inquest. These local neighbors who have been at the fore of the investigation, newsoms children, and celia herself will all give testimony before a local grand jury, leading to the formal indictment of celia for newsoms murder. There will be a trial. Again, many of these parties will come forward, we tell their stories, 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 mid19th century, no defendant is given the opportunity to give testimony at trial. A defendant in 19thcentury legal culture is deemed to be too self interested to give testimony. Celia does not testify. Many parties we have become familiar with do testify, and sense celiasn a , story, celias version of events. And one of the things that becomes clear in the trial, and while there are facts in dispute , and we will come back to a couple of them, the core of celias story is never in dispute. There never is a question about her relationship to newsom, the longstanding sexual abuse to which she has been subjected, and even how with her third child, she has become sick and to fendd to avoid and off newsoms sexual advances, even before striking him with the club. This story, this is celias own one we see in parts adopted by the local farmers who investigated the case, by the members of the newsoms family, and ultimately by the court. This core 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. There is a curious interlude that i think we know too little about still. Celia is secreted out of the jail and avoids the initial hanging date because she has been secreted out of the jail and taken to a hiding place. Who is responsible for that and how that comes about is, i think, one of the mysteries of celias case, but we know ultimately, she is returned to the jail. A new execution date is set. The state court of appeals hears preliminarily the possibility of celias appeal. Celias lawyers ask if the high court will stay or postpone an her execution temporarily until there is a formal review of the Legal Proceedings in the trial court, and the answer is no. The high court sees no legal merit, no likelihood that celia will prevail on appeal. They permit her execution to go forward, and on december 21, 1855, she is hanged in fulton, missouri. So i want to come back with you today to revisit this case through some of the themes we have been developing over the course of the last weeks, come back to celia, as its own story, but also a window into the experience of edslaved women, the role of Sexual Assault in the context of slavery, but also to look at the ways in which law , the ways in which legal plays a Critical Role here in 1850s missouri. Judges, lawyers, grand juries, local jurors, investigators, witnesses, all playing a Critical Role in determining, if you will, in framing how we might interpret celias story, how we might come to conclude whether celia was justified. Right . You remember, the case turns on was celia entitled to assert selfdefense when she acted to put off newsome, right, to resist his Sexual Assault . Was she entitled to that sort of selfdefense in the face of the imminent harm that newsom was surely going to force upon her as he had before, or as an enslaved woman, was celia without recourse . Not in life, because we know in life, she had recourse, and she seized it, but before the law, does she have recourse . So those will be our questions Going Forward today. So three sorts of questions. The first i want to use for us jacobs,back to harriet who we visited a couple of weeks ago. Course, perhaps the best remembered of enslaved women. She is so well remembered in part because she pens an extraordinary narrative, the book we come to know as incidents in the life of a slave girl, published under the pseudonym linda brent. But when we talked about jacobs, we talked about incidents, and we saw that, if you will as a , form of testimony, complicated testimony, filtered through jacobss own concerns about her reputation and her standing as a free black woman when she narrative,his filtered through antislavery politics. But we read, you will recall, very carefully to try and discern the way which still with this narrative, jacobs allows us to glimpse something of the ofsistence, the presence Sexual Assault, the threat of enslavedsault in womens lives. Remember in her story, dr. Flint, the pseudonym for the father of jacobss owner, the way in which this man in his household in edenton, north carolina, over the course of years, threatens, confronts, promises almost promises, right . To ultimately have access to jacobss body, to have sexual relations with her. She lives under this threat. It is so present in her life that we know in the Broad Strokes that she will ultimately secret herself away for a traumatic seven years in the attic of her grandmothers home until she is finally able to make her way north into freedom. But how would we compare these two stories . Jacobs on one hand and celia on the other . What sort of in what ways should we compare them . In what ways are these stories similar stories for you, and in what way are they contrasting stories . Just hands. Yeah, katie. Katie the differences in the support systems that jacobs and celia had. At least jacobs had her grandmother and other family members. And was in sort of this not so isolated area where her grandmother had the ability to protect her and she could appeal to her white lover to protect her, and celia did not have that. She had george maybe. But not as much of a support system. Had celia didnt really have any role models to look up to and to take care of and given the fact that she was so much more isolated in her environment, she was so on her own. Prof. Jones good. What about other folks . How would you compare these two women . These artifacts i put up not by accident. On the left you have the title page from jacobss book. On the right, we have a justice of the peaces writing of celias testimony. But i think maybe i have no that was not it. ,but here, down on the right, you can see the x. Other differences . Yeah, andrea . Andrea what jacobs did, but celia couldnt. That comes into play as to whether or not she would have had a different outcome for her trial or not. Prof. Jones good. Yes . Harriet jacobs was obviously written by herself, so her story we kind of know. Celias story is what we know from court cases and testimonies, which can be kind of questionable. Great, this this is question of literacy. I will come back to the question of isolation. I think literacy and isolation may be two ways in which we can think about dramatically the ways in which not only the way these stories unfold but how the capacity to tell or remember them are shaped. Yes, jacobs is literate, even if she is an enslaved woman in north carolina. We remember this becomes part of the drama between her and dr. Flint, precisely because part of his terror is to pass her notes. Yeah, siobhan . Siobhan i saw a similarity between them. Good. Jones siobhan one thing i noticed, i feel like they really did not have anything to lose except when it came to their children. Jacobs, she could have stayed in that attic, if it was not for the safety of her children. And for celia, it was not until the interrogator was threatening her children that she kind of felt she had to cave in, so i honestly believe if it were not for them having children, they would have done anything to get out of the situation. Prof. Jones very good. We have two notes of difference and one important piece of singularity. We will come back to that. Coming back to the literacy question, we know that jacobs to have the capacity to read and write and 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 or to read the bible and to develop a critical critique of slavery and the conditions under which she lives. Jacobs is someone for whom literacy played a key role in her lifetime, and for us as historians, we know that her literacy is of extraordinary consequence, because we not only narrative, incidents in the life of a slave girl, but we have her correspondence over many years. So we are able to uncover, in a sense, a kind of nuance for Harriet Jacobs that eludes us in celias case. In part because celia is at extraordinary distance. Even here in what is said to be her testimony, or her confession, we realize that this text has come through some very complex channels before it comes to us, right . Celia narrates the story. A justice of the peace listens to the story, writes his own interpretation, if you will, of her words. And then celia signs with an x, but 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 the x suggests she somehow assented to its content. So i think literacy is an important piece. A number of you mentioned isolation. And here isolation in celias , story takes a number of forms, doesnt it . Hand, we could contrast her experience with that of jacobs, who lives in a small town, where she has regular access we will come back to her family, but even in the intercourse of her daytoday life, with free africanamericans, with other white people in edenton, jacobs has a kind of world that becomes critical to understanding how she resists the doctor and ultimately how she escapes. It is that proximity to other people. Celia, by contrast, you are absolutely right. What her life was like in audrain county, we cant say. Right . We do not know. But certainly we know that when she makes that brief migration, if you will, from audrey and audrian and to fulton and to the farm, she is clearly without family, without acquaintances, and the isolation of that farm, many miles from small, downtown fulton means she does not have the access to allies, to information, to resources that jacobs herself had. That is most vividly underscored by the question of family. Isnt it . We know the role that family plays, the powerful role that family plays for Harriet Jacobs, her grandmother and her uncle early on, who not only provide her psychological support, but they are a sort of moral compass, if you will, that buttresses for jacobss critique of her own condition. Right . That she has this kind of family, interlocutors, who are critical to her developing critique and her resistance to dr. Flint over time. Again, celia, unclear. Five slaves in that household in 1850. Only two adult slaves, celia and george, by the time newsom is killed. What sort of community might that have been for celia . A modest one. Perhaps one that was profoundly transient. Right . We see enslaved people there and then disappear. Right . Are they sold . Did they run away . We cant know. But we know there is a transient to this. We can see the relationship with george and how that was immodest and perhaps a somewhat related tod context jacobs. Siobhan pointed to the context that they are both mothers. Motherhood is a theme we have come back to again and again. We see two women who clearly on one hand, jacobs, who very secretly secrets herself, looking not only to secure her own liberty away from north carolina, but thinking very strategically about how to secure the liberty of her children, which, eventually she , will achieve. Celia, on the other hand, with two small children, and there is that moment when it seems to be the case, right, that she gives herself up in a futile, but still powerful attempt to deflect the threat that if she wont tell the story, she will be separated from her children. So motherhood, right, and the fate of ones children, the fate of ones relationship to ones children i think is that , siobhan, what you were getting at . Siobhan yes. S this is a powerful similarity. Here, on one hand, we might think about celia and Harriet Jacobs as two very powerful narratives, both of which speak to the pervasiveness, the terrible duress that is that Sexual Assault disproportionally visits on enslaved women. These are two powerful examples. But as we have also said across the semester our work is partly , not to collapse or reduce all enslaved 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 for jacobs, freedom, right, comes by way of hiding, by way of fugitive status, by way of writing, and celia, liberty, in a sense, 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, an experience framed very differently and has, as we know, vastly different outcomes. So i want to shift now, because part of the way we have been talking about celias case, particularly as we compare her harrietce to that of jacobss, it allows us to talk about the social world and a very ambitious and openended way. Here, i want to shift to underscore the way that once celias story, once celias case , enters the legal culture, the frame shifts and becomes much focused, moreore specialized, more determined by the strictures or the questions of investigators, of judges, of lawyers than by the whole of celias experience, so while there are things we may know case, i want to talk a little bit about how we approach the evidence, if you will, and how legal culture thinks about the evidence. Were going to look at the transcriptions of some of the material from celias trial record. I want to pause at this juncture to give appreciation to a former u of m undergraduate, alison. She was a senior here in the program of american culture. She wrote a senior thesis, an excellent senior thesis, on the history of the memory of the celia case. Allison transcribed the trial record, the manuscript material, and it is her transcriptions that we will take a look at over the next few minutes. You all will appreciate allison, i know, since we ourselves wrestled with transcribing the letters of sarah douglas. Allison spent a year, first transcribing and then analyzing these materials, and she continues today to work on the celia case, as a jd phd student at yale. I am really glad we have a chance to look at her early work on the celia case. So here, what we have in the record are sworn testimonies, part of the trial, as part of the inquest, some of the figures, local farmers who have , come to the newsom farm, have talked with the family, have , have talked to george. They have provided sworn statements to the inquest body as they determine whether or not celia should be indicted for murder. So, here, william powell, who we know is a local farmer, tells us something of what we know about this, i think, important, but again, hard to figure out figure, and that is george. Right . I do not know about you, but after i read celias case for the first time, george was one of the most intriguing, important, but difficult to situate figures. And you have read some of historian melton mclaurins interpretation of george, but today, we will back up a little bit and come back to the evidence, and i want to ask you how you think we should understand the role of george in the story based upon the testimony that we have. So here, william powell, a local farmer, he is relating his confrontation with george the day after newsom had disappeared. I asked his negro boy george where he thought he was. Was. Is, where newsom he stated 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 the old man, if he knew where he was. He stated he believed the last walking yet done was along this path. That is the path between newsom cabin. And celias george, itatement of believe that he had been destroyed or killed in the grow cabin, in celias cabin. So here we have powell. Has not given a formal statement at this point in the preceding. We hear georges words filtered through powells ideas, but we have the suggestion that what . That george has somehow if not implicated celia, he has certainly implicated celias cabin, right . As the site of newsoms demise, and as we know, this will lead powell to more closely scrutinize the area around celias cabin but also to more closely scrutinize celia herself. This is what precedes the confrontation with celia. Powell also testifies at the trial, and in the record we have a transcription of his oral testimony. And here, on crossexamination, which is to say as he is being examined by the attorneys for celia, he again speaks of george. I went into the cookhouse where celia was. I told her she knew where her master was, that george had said enough to make me believe she knew where he was. She denied it. Now, george is even more deeply implicated, isnt he . Even more deeply implicated. Powell is now relating again his interpretation, his memory, of his first confrontation with celia in the kitchen. He says, i told her she knew where her master was, that george and set enough to make me believe she knew where he was. Well, not exactly what he told us just prior that george said. Something about the vicinity of celias cabin, but you can see how powell and others who were investigating this case begin to discern that between celia and george might be a space in which they can insert some doubt, insert some confusion that might net them more evidence, might even net them a confession. Right . So powell beginning to play celia and george off one another in a sense and embellishing, perhaps, even what george has said to him. But celia at this juncture remains resolute that she had nothing to do with this. Finally, Jefferson Jones, and Jefferson Jones, you will remember, is a neighboring farmer, a large farmer, in fulton. His farm is adjacent to that of the newsom family. Jefferson jones is one of the first people outside of the newsom family itself on the scene and his testimony plays Important Role both in the indictment of celia and ultimately in her conviction. Jones is also a slaveholder in fulton. At trial he testified said , 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 the old man. Jones has a theory that perhaps there is a modest conspiracy afoot. A was . Perhaps celi premeditated in her plan. I asked her if she had intended to kill anyone, the old man. She said that she never had. I told her that george had run off, 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 run off, for he knew nothing about it. I asked her if george had advised her to kill the old man. Another theory. Right . Not only that she had premeditated but, in fact, it was george who told her to kill newsom. She said she never had, said that george had told her that he would have nothing more to do with her if she did not quit the old man. Said that george had been staying with her. So, yes . More details, and i kind of feel like he i feel like he pressured her into, like, have no other option but to kill the master, due to the fact that he would have nothing else to do with her if she did not do anything, because it is the first kid by the master, and the second kid, she was unsure, she was unsure, right . George . Jones we are probably most unsure about celias third child. She is pregnant at this moment, and there is an open question about whether that child was father by newsom or by george. There is a strong suggestion there is an intimate relationship between george and celia. George stays with her. This notion that george has urged celia that she should avoid newsom. It is possible that there is a more filial kind of relationship, that they are friends like brother and sister, and george is looking out for celias best interests, but it seems to be more likely, right, that he had been staying with her, that they had an intimate relationship of a sort, and there is no question now, when we get to the testimony of jones, that celia herself is reinforcing the theory that certainly george played a role in this story, though she is quite resolute still, even here in her confrontations with jones, that george has not advised her to harm newsom, did not conspire with her to kill newsom, did not have a physical hand either in harming newsom or disposing of the body. These are all the kinds of questions that we have, but it is clear there is a role. He goes on. She said, struck with the right hand on the right side of his head. I asked her if she knew she could not have struck him as she said and asked her if george had not struck the old man from behind. She said that he did not, knew nothing about it, and was not there at the time. Again, jones has pressed this theory that george has a role, and celia remains consistent throughout many opportunities to tell her story, she remains resolute that george did not have a role. So when i look back on this , whymony, and i ask myself do i have why do i still have questions about george . I think there is no fact more for me and you will tell me if it is true for you there is no fact that is more provocative than that one in which we learn that jones tells celia that george has run off. Did you have a reaction to this notion that george has, apparently, according to jones run off . We, should we, or how might interpret george running off at this juncture . And why does that why do you think that shapes my initial impression of george . Yeah . For me, i dont know. It just made it seem like he did have something to do with it or he was guilty of something, and for me, i felt like it was kind of messed up if him and celia are together, why would he point out that mr. Newsom was at her cabin . You know, i dont know if it was , me, i would probably be like, i dont know. Either that or i have no idea, or maybe he was over with the chickens or something. I would not point her out like that. So i just felt very weird about george. I mean jones what can you point to something . I know what you have got. Is there something in this testimony or other of the testimony that leads you, despite that celia tells you over and over again that she did not why do you think that . He ran away when the master died. That is pointing out that you are guilty. He did not run away when the master was there, but he dies and, oh, george left. Like, she could be strong kill, but ially, to feel like she would need help from a man, because i feel like slaves back then, i guarantee that she feared her master, so i she would not want to do it by herself, so i think george helped her out. Jones all right, i see a lot of hands. Im going to work my way across the room. Go ahead. Helped put him in the fire or some type of help for the killing. And any man, like any man in slavery, i would think this man is sexually abusing my girl, and , like hey, you cant do , anything about it, but when i have the opportunity, im pretty toe like somebody will react it, so, obviously, he is dead now, and no one wants to get caught, so i am going to try to help my girl, whatever they were at the time, it read of his body, so in trouble. Prof. Jones good. Siobhan. I am coming this way. Siobhan. Then i will come across this way. Siobhan i think everyone was to believe that a woman is not Strong Enough to have the power to kill him. I think what the court is trying to do, i think they have already established the threat of a black man, of how strong and aggressive they assume he is, but for a black woman to have that power to kill a master would just be a whole other issue. So i think what the court is trying to do is kind of justify the situation saying it was a man,ong, aggressive, black black slave man who did it , versus a slave woman that did it. I think with george he already threw her under the bus anyway. But at that point when she was in the court, she had a chance to get revenge on him it she wanted to, so i felt the way maybe she felt, if they had said anything about her children, she might say anything to get out of the situation, so at that he point, really was at the mercy of celia. So i feel like for selfpreservation he did the , best thing for himself by running away. Jones ok. Regarding to come to molly. Molly it doesnt make sense, and she told him, and i guess he was covering for her. It does seem to me like i guess celia was about my age. I do not think i could pull the dead body of a old man. I do not think i am Strong Enough, so i do not see how she could have done it herself especially she was pregnant. Yeah . Jones they were so strong, so i dont know. I think you would be capable of pulling a dead body if you had to. But in terms of george, i feel that maybe celia felt like she needed him out of the case. Because she was very attached to her children, and like we said, there were only two adults two , black adults come at this family farm, so if he was convicted, too, there would be no one to watch her children. I cant imagine what she would feel like if they told her that he ran, because where would the children go . And i do not really feel like that was ever fully discussed. Prof. Jones yes . 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 only family she had and i think she wouldve done anything to protect him even if he had been involved, and he had run away. Yes, i think that i mean, like, yes, if he did run away, he like left her, but at the same time, i do not think that implies guilt necessarily because there are only two slaves on this farm. And, like, i do not think that they would have like just the way the system of slavery works, i do not think they would have seen george innocent in any way, so i think like he could have run away to save himself, and that does not necessarily imply guilt. I think that is still really prevalent today in that a lot of people who like dont really have, like, the means to fairly represent themselves in court, like, tend to do things, because they feel they have no other option. It makes them look way worse, but it does not necessarily mean they are guilty. And also, like you could see how a lot of times, when they are investigated, they kind of say things that are not necessarily true to get responses they want, so this could have been something that Jefferson Jones was like saying, to be like, look, george ran away. It is all on you. Tell us everything you know, because you are the only one left, and we are going to pin it on you. It could be just a device to get a confession out of her. Es good. A couple more . Everyone has different ideas, but i just question that she it took her, like, six hours to get everything clean. And to do everything, like, where was george in that time . Where could he possibly have been . That have anything happened . So for him to have run away, even if he had something to do with that, he could have know that she did it, so it made him afraid, so he left. He did not want to have anything to do with it. Prof. Jones good. Lindsay, one more . Lindsay talking about evidence, i am curious why would there have been a fire in her cabin in june . I dont know, im just kind of like prof. Jones the fire in the cabin . Cooking, first and foremost. Not unusual for them to have a fire, although the quantity of ashes turns out to be a little suspicious. Im going to move on. But this is good. Im glad to know that you all by reading this share some of my initial sort of unsettledness about the role of george. That all wemember have in terms of evidence are the testimonies of those neighboring farmers, right, who narrate for us what they say george said, what they say celia said. And so, it would be a mistake, i to rest too much confidence in this testimony. We have this sense, even from this little testimony, the ways in which these investigators are twisting, embellishing, emphasizing some facts in an effort to extract confessions, here in an effort to secure a conviction. So i think as readers come right, as researchers, as historians we read this with , caution, right . Just because jones tells us that george had run off look at what he said. I told her that george had run off. He doesnt say, george had run off. I told her that george had run off. And we are not surprised, right, that in the telling of that true , or false, is an effort to down, right, and to encourage her to implicate george, just for the reasons you suggest, right . It could be read as george having abandoned celia in this extraordinary moment. So how do we deal with this as historians . That is to say, it is powerful testimony. It is provocative testimony. It certainly shapes our ideas, our perceptions, our understanding of what transpires in this case and the role that george played, and 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. So you all know that last it was nott 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. And one of the places we visited was the kingdom of callaway historical society, where they do not have the trial record. We already had the trial record from the court archives, but they had the estate records of robert newsom. Why was this interesting . Well, after newsom dies, and we all know he was killed in june of 1855, but it would be necessary for his heirs and the legal representatives of his estate to take an inventory to accumulate all his assets and all of his debts and to distribute his estate to his heirs, his children, his grandchildren, and the like. And the records of that legal proceeding, which is in a sense a companion outside of the prosecution of celia for murder, those Court Records have also survived. The originals are there in the kingdom of callaway inventory. Estate records. And while i know you cannot see it here, toward the bottom is the inventory of the slaves in the household, and there is one negro man, george, valued at 900. So george had not disappeared at all. And when it comes time to inventory this state, there is george, and if we continue through the record, what we find is that george, himself, would be sold. He was sold to a slaveholder in nearby celine county for more than his value, for 1190. He had not, in fact disappeared , at all. Right . So here, for me, this changes a lot 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 up in his own way in the aftermath of newsoms killing as is celia. Right . He is not charged or convicted of newsoms murder, but he is subject to what we have come to understand is another of slaverys most harsh practices. He is sold away. Right . He is sold away from the community he knows, from the household that he knows, from the people whom he knew best. George is now sold away, and i think it changes, right . It changes how we read that testimony, and it helps us appreciate how fraught that evidence of the trial record is. 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 materials as a way of, perhaps, to me, suggesting about the ways in which celia and george in their own ways were caught in the vice of this household, of abuses, and this household they are both caught up in the story in harsh ways. I will point out, and i will come back to this, and in the inventory, below george, there the other two slaves in this household, and they are children. Celias children. A girl named jane, who is three years old, and a girl named viny, three years old, and jane, oneyearold, both valued at 150 each. And i can tell you that when george is sold, when we account the record of georges sale alongside is the sale of celias daughters out of the newsom household as well. So new evidence allows us to add new layers and think with important nuance about this case. One more i think important question, slavery and the law of rape. Lets go back to the trial. What you know is that at the end of this trial, the presiding trial judge, the trial judge will instruct the jurors in this case. What does it mean to instruct the jurors . They dont have special knowledge of the law, be it of rape, murder, selfdefense. Part of the courts role is at 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 celias guilt against the law as the court instructs it. I want to look again at the state law and then at the actual jurys instructions in this case. We learn from this the ways in which the powerful role a local judges interpretation of the law, the powerful role that plays in determining celias fate. Celias lawyers have attempted to introduce evidence and argue that celia, while she killed newsom, is not guilty of firstdegree 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 selfdefense. The argument is celia, while she killed newsom, did so defending herself against newsoms commission of a felony, 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. Lets read it together. Every person who shall take any woman unlawfully against her will, and by force, minutes or himss, compel her to marry or to marry any other person, or to be defiled, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by imprisonment in the penitentiary not less than three nor exceeding five years. What are the key words here for our consideration . Any woman, 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. As a slave, no such role exists. I think that is why the court did not recognize her selfdefense claim. Good. So it is any woman against her will. I think one of the key questions here 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. It is ok for the slaveowner to order something to the slaves. Upon conditions there condition thereof, those two things are incompatible. Here, every person, including newsom, upon conviction. Could newsom have been convicted in the same local court for the defilement of celia . Yes . I think it was less about against her will and more about the unlawfully part because i know there was that dehumanization of slaves, but i think the point was more as a slave that she did not have the protection under the law to like, being against her will was counted as rape because she was property. Therefore, he could do whatever he wanted. Less so more about her will and more about whether it was unlawfully against her will. Excellent close reading. Here we have a judge in Central Missouri in the 1850s 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 celias 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 celias 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 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 firstdegree. Here is an interpretation of the law that brings together that statute we looked at with selfdefense and makes an argument, provides a frame for how the jury might interpret the evidence. This is the argument made by celias lawyers. What we recognize is this is celias story, the story she has told over time, bit by bit, but 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 selfdefense, right, not to intentionally kill newsom, but to defend herself against Sexual Assault. Here celias testimony, here is celias critique of her circumstances that makes its way into this proposed jury instruction. Lets look at the instruction the court actually delivers. If newsom was in the habit of 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 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 by either blow, it is murder in the firstdegree. It is extraordinary jury 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 celias story, except that the conclusion is counter, 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 . Was it particular to enslaved women, is peters 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 dont 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 does it implicate a black man as being violent, which was a popular image, but also to grant celias claim of selfdefense would also set legal precedent that would have to be recognized not only in the state of missouri but in courts nationwide. That would unravel slavery as being a dehumanizing institution. One of the questions this choice by the judge leaves us with is, what would be the implications to conclude otherwise . Our readings of others have suggested to us the ways in which this sort of story, the circumstance that begins with the Sexual Assault of 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 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 1850s. A couple more things. I want to end to talk about where we are with the celia case. You have read the 1991 book which popularized celias story and made it possible for us to teach celia, that the work continues. Celia is still not as well remembered as that other 1850s 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. Celia has not 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. In 1995 on the left, you see Margaret Bush wilson. Shes now deceased but was a longstanding and much admired attorney, civil rights attorney, in st. Louis, missouri. She learned of celias story and became much admiring of celia and wanted to work to help remember celia and bring her story to light. She commissioned in the 1990s 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 celias portrait. Here is a moment where we have local figures working in important ways to preserve and bring celias story to light. This portrait hangs briefly in the Missouri Historical society before it becomes part of Margaret Bush wilsons personal collection. The poem Margaret Bush wilson writes, the tribute to celia, gives you a sense of the purpose of her memory for Margaret 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 Margaret Bush wilson, 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. In fulton, missouri from about 2005 to 2011 or 2012, local residents gathered on the anniversary of celias 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, so celia is part of a narrative from racism then, racism today. We still have racism in fulton. She takes on a symbolic value for telling 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 celias story, powerful bringing celias 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. Celias 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. The celia project with scholars 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 wont get caught up in romance or memory or myth or fiction when it comes to celia, i will leave you to contemplate this scene, which is our team on what is now federal land in fulton, the site where the newsom farm stood, the site of this dramatic moment in the life of celia. All that is left are some foundation stones, old trees, and open fields. But here, 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 celias 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. It was extraordinary, powerful 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. You can watch lectures in history every weekend on American History tv. We take you inside College Classrooms to learn about topics ranging from the American Revolution to 9 11. That is saturday at 8 00 p. M. And midnight eastern on cspan3. Each week, American History you reel america bring archival films that provide context for todays Public Affairs issues. City, a wpark housing demolition product underway that will greatly improve the Living Conditions of families of moderate means. In many other cities in the country, old tenements are being torn down to make way for modern buildings with comfortable, sanitary apartments. At Colonial Park and harlem, as in many other congested areas, wpa workers have constructed a huge Swimming Pool and they are constructing a bathhouse. In this project, skilled workers are employed, utilizing the knowledge of their trade gained in the days before depression. Swimming pools are particularly to the community because they offer a haven of relaxation during the hot summer months. At the same time, Swimming Pools remove children from crowded city streets, providing every suchuard to prevent tragedies as were all too common in old swimming holes. Park improvement projects underway all over the country is another feature of the program at Colonial Park. Has been built in which youngsters may slash to their hearts content. New additions to the playground area have been made possible for by improvement butte even the youngest children find plenty of opportunities for play under watchful supervision. In many parts of the country, Nursery Schools have been established, and almost 10,000 children are provided with hot meals, supervised lay activities and excellent preschool training, and competent instructors. 600 is provided for teachers, nurses, dietitians and cooks. 1945, two 30, japanese torpedo sucked the uss indianapolis in shark infested waters. The crew delivered atomic bomb parts for the weapon that would be used on the city of hiroshima. Surviving crew members, only 317, were not rescued for several days. Next on American History tv, on this 75th anniversary of the ships sinking, congress awarded the entire crew the congressional gold medal, its highest civilian honor. The ceremony was held online and the house of representatives provided the video. Hello, it is my privilege to welcome you all to the celebration of courage and patriotism 75 years to the day since the u. S. S. Indianapolis met its fate while sailing through the Philippine Sea to the end of world war ii. Today, despite the unprecedented circumstances, we come together as a United States congress to bestows its highest honor, the congressional gold medal on the crew men of
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