CHA3U : History Of The United States

The book by Melton McLaurin has elaborated great details on the story on one of the female slaves by the name Cecilia. The lady is famous as one of the significant events that happened in the Calloway County in Missouri. The murder and disposal marked the occasion.  The experiences from Cecilia has a lot to be learned from the slavery and the period of Antebellum generally (McLaurin 8).

One of the challenges that comes out of this book is that owning the slave in the United States of America marked an individual's level of richness and Robert Newsom was one of these wealthy persons (Executive Office of the President of the United States of America, 2016). He had purchased Celia, and he also owned other five slaves. The coming of Celia into the life of Newsome as a slave happened in the year 1850 at the age of 14 years when the man purchased her. She was brought as a substitute for the Newsom's wife who had died earlier at the age of sixty years. Therefore, the master required the lady as a sexual slave and a household cook.

The second challenge in the book is the frustrations that were experienced by the slaves due to the inability to control their own lives (Filler, 2017). George as one of the slaves is unable to control his destiny because of the life's frustrations he is passing through with his lover Celia. For instance, he is not in a position of stopping the physical link between his master and Celia. It's not possible to initiate the idea because Celia cannot control her own life as well. The evidence provided at the trail of Celia was a good indication that her pregnancy had impacted George negatively in the fact that Celia was her lover (Simon, 2012). However, the man could not protect her from sexual harassment she was going through their master who owned the two of them. In the end, George issues a decree out of the frustrations for having forced by his master to share his lover (McLaurin 19).

Lastly, all the enslaved ladies were being governed by the law even if it never protected them (America, 2012). Literally, their masters claimed them, bought and then sold as the chattels. Physically, they were as well claimed by the individuals who believed to have authority over them. Many times, they experienced beating and raped to enforce the slavery law on their individuals. For instance, Newsom claimed the lives of Celia and George.

The book has also helped me to understand how the republic was divided before the civil war experienced in the United States in the following ways (Shi & Tindall, 2016). First, many people in the government of America lived in the culture dominated by the white male that undermined the Black Americans especially the female individuals. The female by the name Celia was a slave and a factual in interpreting an event that portrayed fear among the slaves in the Antebellum period experienced in the U.S.A. McLaurin has used this event of Celia who underwent a lot of injustice and the hardship of rape to depict the kind of division that existed in America and to explain to the current generation what life would look like if the slave trade continues (McLaurin 25).

The second division is witnessed where the constitution of America recognizes the slavery as the constitution of local individuals in the United States of America (Zinn,2015). However, the northern part did not adopt the slavery to their economy, and at the same time, it brought a contraction to the vision of their forefathers in which all the individuals were to be free (The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica, 2014).

The third division is observed where each part of the United States of America had different perspectives of the slavery. For instance, the southern individuals regarded slavery as a fundamental institution in the case of the plantation in the local economy. In that sense, it was being associated with the local society and their culture. Therefore, as the U.S.A continued enlarging, there was a big worry among the people who lived in the northern part that the slavery might be introduced in the southern region (Brands, Breen, Williams & Gross, 2015).

The book by the Melton McLaurin has as well helped me to understand the injustice that existed before the civil war. The team that was defending Celia approached her trial in favor of proving she was guilt about the crime she had committed instead of her being innocent since she was trying to rescue herself from the sexual harassment. The issues were never presented during Celia's trial since the team felt they would be very lenient for her. The case was made difficult for the defending team by the judge favoring the prosecution. Both sides argued their case out, and after they had rested, the judgment was given which returned the guilty verdict leading to a death sentence for Celia.in the year 1855 (McLaurin 43). The legal team that defended Celia and Jameson were not satisfied with the ruling and decided to appeal the case which was turned down by Judge Hall. Later, they proceeded to the Supreme Court, but the central issue of worry was that their client's appeal would never be heard. The reason for the judgment made by Hall was never known but according to McLaurin was due to political tension experienced in the state due to the ongoing argument about the Kansas' and the slavery (McLaurin 67).

The author has generally used the family and the slavery in drawing the final remark on how the issue has brought the division among the many societies in the Republic of America. McLaurin has also pointed out how the slavery has occupied the lives of many individuals before the civil war (McLaurin,1991).

References:

America, O. H. T. C. of the U. S. of. (2012). Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (Map-21). Act.

Brands, H. W., Breen, T. H., Williams, R. H., & Gross, A. J. (2015). American stories: A history of the United States. Pearson.

Executive Office of the President of the United States of America. (2016). Artificial Intelligence, Automation, and the Economy. WhiteHouse. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-016-0685-0

Filler, L. (2017). The crusade against slavery: 1830-1860.

McLaurin, M. A. (1991). Celia, a Slave: A True Story of Violence and Retribution in Antebellum Missouri.

Shi, D. E., & Tindall, G. B. (2016). America: A narrative history.

Simon, L. S. (2012). RELIEVING PAIN IN AMERICA: A BLUEPRINT FOR TRANSFORMING PREVENTION, CARE, EDUCATION, AND RESEARCH. Journal of Pain & Palliative Care Pharmacotherapy. https://doi.org/10.3109/15360288.2012.678473

The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. (2014). Amendments to the Constitution of The United States of America. Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Zinn, H. (2015). A people's history of the United States: 1492-present.