⚖️ Episode 15: The Trial of the Slave Girl Celia (1855)

On this episode of The Glitched Gavel,it takes us to pre-Civil War Missouri to examine a case that dared to ask a forbidden question: Did an enslaved woman have a legal right to her own body?

• The Breaking Point: In 1850, 14-year-old Celia was purchased by Robert Newsom, a Missouri farmer who immediately began a five-year cycle of sexual abuse. By 1855, having already borne two of Newsom’s children and pregnant with a third, Celia warned her master to stay away while she was ill. When he ignored her and entered her cabin on the night of June 23, Celia struck him twice with a heavy stick, killing him, and subsequently burned his remains in her fireplace.
• The "Glitch" in the Gavel: This trial exposed a massive, intentional cont ...