The 1855 Murder Case of Missouri versus Celia, an Enslaved Woman

The 1855 Murder Case of Missouri versus Celia, an Enslaved Woman: An Exercise in Historical Imagination reconstructs and sets in motion known and suspected details, rebuilding the elided background story behind the conviction of an enslaved teen found guilty of bludgeoning and burning to death her owner. A middle-aged widower bought Celia for sexual usage that began in the first hour of her purchase; he fathered her three children in quick succession. After five years of sexual entrapment on his isolated farm, as the child Celia entered legal womanhood, someone brutally murdered her enslaver and told the posse to force a confession from Celia. The judge who decided the handling of the case suppressed testimony and struck exonerating evidence. The political climate and social tensions of pre-Civil War Missouri did not favor justice for an enslaved young woman who confessed, even under torture, to murdering her owner and mutilating his remains, though those acquainted with the case believed she could not have committed the deed. But why would Celia confess and then stick to her coerced confession, claiming that Satan made her do it? Who else might have harbored motives to brutalize and burn to death Celia's enslaver and then leave her to be condemned to hang? U.S. history favors belief in Celia's forced confession, but The 1855 Murder Case of Missouri versus Celia, an Enslaved Woman, interrogates the circumstances that produced it.