Celia, a Slave Book Review Essay

Celia, A Slave is a story that takes many opposite historical facts from the era that the book was put in, and uses a slave named Celias story to tie them only in and show how these withalts that didnt directly ingrain her, would indirectly affect her, and the other(a) slaves in this time as well.The author, Melton A. McLaurin, not only wrote the story of Celia in his book, but he also focused on other historical events taking place at the time to support his thesis that Celias case demonstrated what was happening on a global scale. He used facts such as the slave revolts in Haiti and the Dred Scott decision to become a case on why things were so hard for slaves at the time in the United States, and how they touched Celia, and her case. McLaurin also used antithetical tidy sum and organizations uniform the Border Ruffians and the Massachusetts outgoer Aid corporation to show the culture and union of the time and place of Celias story.The slave revolts in Haiti would i ndirectly affect Celia. Because the slaves revolted in Haiti, and actually won, it came as a wakeup call to the southerners. They knew that the slave population outnumbered their own, and if they revolted against them, they werent sure if they would be subject to stop them. This made the Southerners even stricter when it came to bondage, and less lenient when it came to any types of escapes, or breaking of laws. This made it impossible for the jury in Celias transfer case to believe that it she truly killed him in self-defense.The Dred Scott decision would directly affect her, because of the fact that the decision was still valid, and she, along with all the other slaves, werent protected by the U.S. Constitution, and were not considered U.S. citizens. This ruled out any production line that John Jameson, and the rest of her defense, would come up with arguing her constitutional rights. Instead, they brought up things like, how it wouldve been possible for her to kill a man of h is size, and how it was possible that the body wouldve been all disseminated in a fire in a matter of hours. doubting Thomas Shoatman also tried to testify that after she striked Newsom the first time he threw his hand up to catch her, but the judge sustained pursuit objections to the defendants testimonies, because a majority of the jury and the judge himself were all slave owners. This even came as a problem for John Jameson at first, because he was defend a slave when he had some himself. The thing that really allowed him to tie to Celia though, was the fact that he had a daughter, and he wouldnt have treasured the same injustice fall on her if the roles were reversed.The Border Ruffians showed the culture and society of the time in Missouri. The border ruffians would cross over into Kansas and vote for all things pro slavery related, and would beat Kansas citizens into voting for pro slavery as well. This was an example of the people that resided in Missouri, and how intent they were on making slavery legal in as many states as possible.The Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company also showed the culture of the time, but from the aspect of people who didnt want slavery. The company took advantage of the Kansas Nebraska Act to guess and get anti-slavery supporters to settle in the Kansas territory, to try and make it a slave free state. The company was crucial in settling Kansas, and making it a free slave state.The book was a good read, though a bit repetitive at times, and educated the reader about different issues at the time of Celias case that would affect her, and also affected slaves knows in at the time. It also would educate the reader to what it was like to live in the time of Celias case, and get an insight on what it was like for her, and others.