Celia, a Slave Page 4

  The reaction of Newsom’s sons toward Celia may have been quite different from that of their sisters. David, at seventeen, may have welcomed the presence of a female slave his age. It is possible even that he might have hoped to share her sexual favors. Recent scholarship has shown that there sometimes existed a willingness on the part of fathers and sons to share slave mistresses. Indeed, at approximately the time Celia was brought to Newsom’s farm a much more famous southerner, Senator James Henry Hammond of South Carolina, was engaging in sexual relationships with two slave women, mother and daughter. He later gave both women to his legitimate son, Harry, who was also apparently involved in an affair with the daughter and who had fathered a child by her, as the elder Hammond admitted he may also have done.12

  Thirty-seven and engaged to the woman who would become his second wife, Robert Newsom’s oldest son, Harry, may or may not have objected to his father’s actions. His response to Celia would have been influenced by the opinions of his betrothed (depending on the degree of his devotion to her), his attitudes about slavery, and the nature of his relationship to his father, both filial and economic. Whatever his feelings about his father’s relationship to Celia, he would soon leave his father’s farm to establish his own household. For this reason, and because of likely financial ties to his father or to his estate, it is doubtful that Harry would have chastised his father, even if he disapproved of his actions. Thus, regardless of what his children and grandchildren thought about his sexual abuse of the recently purchased young female slave, Robert Newsom was lord of the manor and could use Celia as he pleased.

  Celia’s arrival at the Newsom farm also would have required an adjustment by individuals other than family members. By this time, as we have seen, Robert Newsom had five male slaves, four of whom were older than Celia. As to their response to a new female slave on the farm, especially one obviously serving as concubine for their master, we can only surmise. Recent studies of the sexual behavior of slaves, however, indicate that despite the intrusion of the institution of slavery into their private lives, slaves accepted essentially the same conventions of sexual behavior that were prevalent among whites. Thus, although the census data do not indicate the presence of female slaves at the Newsom farm, some of Newsom’s adult male slaves may well have had mates on surrounding farms, or in the town of Fulton, since such arrangements were common throughout the South.13 Given human nature, however, there was also a high probability, one supported by recent scholarship on slavery, that one or more of the adult male slaves would have seen Celia as a possible sexual partner, a circumstance that would have created tensions between the slave and master.14

  We know little about the dynamics of the human relationships on the Newsom farm between 1850 and 1855. Most of what we know must be gleaned from the records of her trial, but what is known indicates that Celia proved a troubling presence. Her assigned task on the farm seems to have been that of cook, but the testimony at her trial suggests that throughout the period Robert Newsom regarded her primarily as his concubine. He continued to make sexual demands of her, and Celia gave birth to two children, one, probably both, fathered by him. The evidence also indicates that, because of her special relationship to him, Newsom rewarded Celia with material goods beyond those which could ordinarily be expected by a slave. Certainly one such reward, at least from Newsom’s point of view, if not from Celia’s, was a cabin of her own, one that would have been luxurious compared to the housing in which the vast majority of American slaves resided. Built of brick, it was a one-story structure with a single front entrance and windows on the back. The cabin possessed a large chimney and fireplace complete with hearth stones, and was situated in a grove of cherry and pear trees some fifty yards behind the Newsom home.15

  At some time before 1855, Celia became romantically involved with another of Newsom’s slaves, a man named George. Little is known of the relationship, although Celia’s trial record suggests that it developed toward the end of her stay on the Newsom farm. It must have been an intense relationship, for by early 1855 George had begun “staying” with Celia in her cabin. Whether his stays were for more than a night, and whether they were known to Newsom, we can only conjecture. What is known is that during this period Newsom continued to visit Celia regularly in her cabin and to have sexual intercourse with her. The very existence of this triangle suggests that Celia’s relationship to George had only recently begun, for it is extremely unlikely that such a triangular relationship could have long endured without Newsom’s knowledge. That Newsom had separated Celia from the male slaves on the farm and placed her in a special cabin close to his home strongly suggests that he was not prepared to tolerate her involvement with the male slaves. So, too, does George’s insistence that Celia break off her relationship with Newsom.16

  Sometime in the winter of 1855, probably in late February or early March, an event occurred that changed forever the human relationships on the Newsom farm. Celia again conceived, this time without certain knowledge of the father, knowing only that the child she carried had been sired either by her master, Robert Newsom, or by her fellow bondsman, George. Testimony given at Celia’s trial suggests that Celia’s pregnancy had placed an emotional strain upon George that he could not accept. Celia was his lover—he perhaps regarded her as his wife—yet he could not protect her from the sexual advances of the man who owned them both. At this time George faced a dilemma imposed by his own sense of masculinity and his inability to alter the behavior of his master. It was a dilemma common among male slaves, one that scholars agree was extremely detrimental to their status within the slave community and family. To have confronted Newsom directly at this stage to demand that he cease his sexual exploitation of Celia would have been an act that could have cost him his life. While some black males possessed the courage to take such risks, most, understandably, were unprepared to do so.17 So George made a demand of the most vulnerable member of the triangle. According to testimony at Celia’s trial, George informed Celia that “he would have nothing more to do with her if she did not quit the old man.” The question of how she was to accomplish this, given the nature of her relationship to Newsom, George apparently left unanswered.18

  George’s ultimatum placed Celia in a quandary that exemplified perfectly the vulnerability of female slaves to sexual exploitation by males within the owner’s household. Faced with sexual exploitation by a white male, especially an owner, a female slave had few options but to submit. Of course, physical resistance was possible, and slave women in similar circumstances did on occasion resort to physical attacks upon the males who threatened them, some resorting to murder. Such resistance, however, always carried the possibility of physical retaliation, perhaps even death. If a slave woman had children, as Celia did, physical resistance could also lead to retribution against her children, including their sale. Understandably, under such circumstances only the most determined, indomitable female slaves resisted their white exploiters physically. On large plantations, or in towns, a female slave might seek the protection of an individual whose power the master could not ignore—a white townsman of some prominence opposed to the sexual exploitation of slaves, for example. On larger plantations, the interceding individual could even be black, perhaps a black woman who had some standing within the plantation slave community. Celia, however, like many slaves, lacked the support of an organized slave community. She might have considered fleeing, one of the most prevalent forms of resistance among slaves, on plantations or on family farms, whether urban or rural. Here, again, she was handicapped by the presence of her children. In addition, there is no evidence to suggest that Celia had any contacts with the world beyond the Newsom farm, any relationships with persons, slave or free, who might aid her in an escape attempt. Finally, George’s ultimatum clearly indicated that he would take no action to protect Celia from the advances of her master. The lone female slave on a family farm, lacking the support of a large slave community, cut off from the possible allies that might have been f
ound in an urban setting, burdened with the responsibility for her two children, and unable to depend upon the protection of her slave lover, Celia was forced to confront her dilemma alone.19

  Under such circumstances, it is a measure of her commitment to George that Celia attempted to do as he bid her, and to do so in a manner that held the possibility of allowing their relationship to continue. Any action she might have considered would have placed her in jeopardy. Actually confronting Newsom would have placed her person at risk and threatened the well-being of her children and the child she carried. To make an appeal to other adult members of the family also carried its dangers, since none of the family members were likely to have welcomed her open admission of Newsom’s continued sexual exploitation of her. The latter course, however, carried the lesser risk, and was the one Celia selected. In an effort to stop Newsom’s sexual advances and thus retain George’s affections, she appealed to the family members, citing her pregnancy and accompanying sickness rather than her relationship with George. It is almost certain that Celia approached Virginia and Mary. She would have appealed first to them because they were women but also because by this time neither of the Newsom sons lived at their father’s home. Harry had long had his own residence, and in April David and his new bride had moved to their own farm.20

  The reaction of Newsom’s daughters to Celia’s revelations is unrecorded. Whether or not they believed her, we can never know, but it is difficult to imagine that they were not already painfully aware of the nature of the relationship between Celia and their father. Nor does the evidence indicate whether either Virginia or Mary attempted to intervene with their father on Celia’s behalf. It is extremely unlikely that either did so, for they were nearly as dependent upon their father as was Celia. Mary, at approximately nineteen yet a youth herself, could have done nothing to prevent her father’s abuse of Celia. Virginia, a thirty-six-year-old mother of three children who, for whatever reason, was without husband, was dependent upon her father for both her own well-being and for that of her children. Economic dependence upon their father, however, is not the only factor that would have made intervention by the daughters on Celia’s behalf unlikely. Women within the South’s slaveholding families were, after all, beneficiaries of slavery, and as such unlikely critics. In addition, the society furnished them a variety of rationalizations, just as it offered a number of justifications for the dominant role of the male. While slavery had its white female southern critics, white women were on the whole supportive of the institution, in addition to being relatively powerless to prevent the sexual exploitation of female slaves, which they bitterly resented.21

  What is certain is that at this point in their lives, both of Newsom’s daughters experienced what Charles Sellers has called “the fundamental moral anxiety” of slavery. They were forced to confront one of slavery’s oldest and most painful moral dilemmas. To do nothing meant that Celia would continue to be sexually exploited by their father. To confront their father would possibly threaten their own livelihood and continued well-being and, in Virginia’s case, the well-being of her children. Their dilemma was made the more acute by Celia’s threat to hurt the old man “if he did not quit forcing her while she was sick.” Perhaps they escaped their dilemma through a process of rationalization, as a historian of slavery recently has suggested many plantation women did, viewing Celia as the dark, sensual temptress who seduced their father. Perhaps they accepted the power of the patriarch, as their society bid them do, viewing an obedient acceptance of their father’s behavior as an obligation. Whatever they thought about Celia and her relationship with their father as a result of Celia’s appeal, there is no evidence to indicate that either daughter acted to prevent her abuse by their father.22

  Whether or not Virginia and Mary attempted to intervene on Celia’s behalf, Newsom’s behavior did not change. He continued to make sexual demands of Celia. Driven by Newsom’s unceasing sexual advances and George’s demand that she force Newsom to stop having sexual relations with her, Celia directly confronted her master sometime on or immediately before June 23, 1855. Faced with rejection by her lover, she begged Newsom to leave her alone, again using the excuse that as a result of her pregnancy she had been sick for the last few months rather than revealing the nature of her relationship with George.

  Newsom’s response to Celia’s plea was predictable. Whatever he thought of or felt for her, whether he regarded her as a person or experienced even an occasional stirring of compassion for her, we cannot know. It is possible that he felt all of these things, or none. His past behavior toward Celia, however, unequivocally proclaimed that, whatever he felt for Celia, as her master he considered sexual relations with her his privilege. Thus Newsom brushed aside her request and, as if to emphasize his right to sex with her, informed Celia that “he was coming to her cabin that night.”23

  Desperately seeking some means of complying with George’s ultimatum, Celia threatened to hurt her master if he made further sexual demands of her. Newsom’s response to Celia’s threats is not recorded, but nothing in any of the testimony given at Celia’s trial indicates that he took seriously threats from a slave girl who had served as his mistress for almost five years. Celia, on the other hand, was determined to break off the sexual relationship with her master, even if it meant acting upon her threats. After her confrontation with Newsom, Celia obtained a large stick, which she placed in the corner of her cabin upon her return. Should Newsom come to her cabin that night, as he said he would, Celia was prepared to resort to a physical attack to repel his advances.24

  As evening approached on Saturday, June 23, the members of the Newsom family prepared for bed. Since David and his bride had moved to their own home in April, only Mary, Virginia, and Virginia’s children remained in the household with Newsom. Virginia last saw her father at twilight, sitting by his bedroom window reading. She had probably entered the bedroom to place her youngest son, Billy, who slept with his grandfather, in bed. Then Mary, Virginia, and the other children, including James Coffee, who slept in the room with his mother, retired for the night, leaving Newsom alone with his book and young Billy. It was the last time any member of the family saw him.25

  Later that night, at approximately ten o’clock, after the other family members were asleep, Newsom left his bedroom and walked the sixty or so paces to Celia’s cabin. He entered the cabin, which was illuminated by the light from a small fire Celia had started in the fireplace. We know that Celia’s children were in the cabin with her, but because of the late hour it is likely they were asleep. Precisely what occurred in the few minutes after Newsom entered the cabin is unclear. It is reasonable to assume that Newsom, as was his custom, went to the cabin solely for the purpose of having sexual intercourse with Celia. Since Celia had warned her master not to come to her cabin again for that purpose, and had threatened to hurt him if he did so, it is also reasonable to assume that a confrontation occurred. We do know from testimony at Celia’s trial that the two exchanged words. Whatever else was said, we know that Newsom demanded that Celia continue to have sex with him and that Celia refused.

  As Newsom approached her, Celia retreated before him into a corner of the house, with Newsom positioned between her and the fireplace, his form silhouetted against the flames. Celia reached into the corner and retrieved the large stick that she had placed there earlier in the afternoon precisely for the purpose of defending herself should Newsom ignore her warnings. As the old man continued to advance, with one hand she raised the stick, “about as large as the upper part of a Windsor chair, but not so long,” and brought it down against the head of her master. Dazed by the blow, Newsom “sunk down on a stool or towards the floor,” groaning and throwing up his hands as if to catch Celia. Afraid that an angered Newsom would harm her, Celia raised the club with both hands and once again brought it crashing down on Newsom’s skull. With the second blow the old man fell, dead, to the floor.26

  Frightened by what she had done, Celia for a moment could only star
e at the prone figure of her master. Then she bent down to examine him, “to see whether he was dead.” Her examination revealed that she had killed Newsom, and momentarily she panicked. She realized her danger, feared that Newsom’s body would be discovered and she would be hung. She had to think, to regain her composure. With Newsom’s corpse sprawled upon her floor, it was imperative that she discover a method of disposing of the body, one which would draw no suspicion toward her, which would not reveal that Newsom had visited her cabin. She sat for an hour or more, watching the still figure on her cabin floor, perhaps checking to see that her children, after all the commotion, were still sleeping.

  Finally she hit upon a plan, one both simple and ironic. She decided to burn Newsom’s body in her fireplace. With his body consumed by flames, there would be nothing left to connect her with her master’s disappearance, nothing to indicate that he had come to her that night. Celia took the stick with which she had killed Newsom and laid it in the fire. She stepped outside and collected staves intended for hogsheads, which were stacked near the cabin. Returning, she built a roaring fire, then doubled up the body of Newsom and pushed it into the flames. Through the night she tended the fire as it consumed the mortal remains of her former master. When the flames had disposed of the body, she picked the remaining bones from the ashes, crushing the smaller ones against the hearth stones with a rock and throwing the crushed particles back into the fireplace. The larger bones, those she could not crush, she placed “under the hearth, and under the floor between a sleeper and the fire-place.” When the ashes cooled, she worked in the dark to remove some of the ashes, which she carried out into the yard just before daybreak. Then she went to bed.27

  The next morning, before the family became alarmed at the absence of Robert Newsom, Celia spied the twelve-year-old Coffee Waynescot playing in a cherry tree outside her cabin. In an act that revealed the depth of her hatred for Newsom and his kin, she asked the boy to come into her cabin and clean out her fireplace. Coffee testified that “she would give me two dozen walnuts if I would carry the ashes out. I said good lick.” And so, enticed by a slave’s offer of a handful of walnuts, Coffee Waynescot climbed down from the cherry tree and entered Celia’s cabin. Accompanied by Celia he walked over to the hearth on which Celia cooked her family’s meals. There he bent down and scooped the ashes from the fireplace, dropping them from his ash shovel into a bucket. As the shovelfuls of ash thudded against the bucket bottom, ash particles would have arisen from the bucket and floated and swirled in the morning air. Stooped over the hearth within the confines of Celia’s small cabin, Coffee Waynescot inevitably would have inhaled the remains of his grandfather, would have breathed his grandfather’s ashes deep into his lungs. What Celia, a slave, felt at that moment is not recorded, but she would have understood that the boy was inhaling his grandfather’s remains even as he cleared the ashes from the fireplace, a fireplace which Coffee’s grandfather had built for her, and over which she cooked the food she fed her own children, whom Robert Newsom had fathered. The ashes removed from the fireplace, young Coffee carried the bucket outside and spilled his grandfather’s remains in the grass alongside a “beat down like” path which ran to the stables that had only the day before belonged to Robert Newsom.28