Marie Page
Intro to US History
Section 13
A Start to the Abolishment of Slavery Melton A. McLaurin taught at the University of South Alabama then held a chair in the history department at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. He then went on to serve as Associate Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs from 1996 to 2003. Prior to his outstanding achievements as an educator, McLaurin received his Ph.D. in U.S. History from the University of South Carolina. Throughout his career he wrote many novels, with one of the most popular ones being Celia, A Slave. This novel takes place during the early nineteenth century in the newly established state of Missouri in Callaway county during the Antebellum American South. McLaurin unveils the story of Celia, a slave who stood up to her abusive owner and became the defendant in a trial that threatened to spoil the ways of the south’s slave consortium. Although McLaurin acknowledges that Celia harmed her master to the most extreme degree, he sympathizes with her reasoning and overlooks her label as “property” to have natural human rights. The story opens with McLaurin introducing Robert Newsom and describing his journey west to prosper as a farmer, landowner, and socialite of Callaway County. McLaurin introduces the idea “Thus, throughout the antebellum era, while Callaway County's promise to settlers such as Robert Newsom of a better life in a relatively egalitarian white society was fulfilled, it would have been obvious to Newsom …show more content…
The book goes into detail about how poorly enslaved women were treated and what was expected of them. The book should be highly recommended to students learning about the history of America, and the story of Celia does a great job of depicting the court case that will set the scene for what will lead to the Civil
Intro to US History
Section 13
A Start to the Abolishment of Slavery Melton A. McLaurin taught at the University of South Alabama then held a chair in the history department at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. He then went on to serve as Associate Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs from 1996 to 2003. Prior to his outstanding achievements as an educator, McLaurin received his Ph.D. in U.S. History from the University of South Carolina. Throughout his career he wrote many novels, with one of the most popular ones being Celia, A Slave. This novel takes place during the early nineteenth century in the newly established state of Missouri in Callaway county during the Antebellum American South. McLaurin unveils the story of Celia, a slave who stood up to her abusive owner and became the defendant in a trial that threatened to spoil the ways of the south’s slave consortium. Although McLaurin acknowledges that Celia harmed her master to the most extreme degree, he sympathizes with her reasoning and overlooks her label as “property” to have natural human rights. The story opens with McLaurin introducing Robert Newsom and describing his journey west to prosper as a farmer, landowner, and socialite of Callaway County. McLaurin introduces the idea “Thus, throughout the antebellum era, while Callaway County's promise to settlers such as Robert Newsom of a better life in a relatively egalitarian white society was fulfilled, it would have been obvious to Newsom …show more content…
The book goes into detail about how poorly enslaved women were treated and what was expected of them. The book should be highly recommended to students learning about the history of America, and the story of Celia does a great job of depicting the court case that will set the scene for what will lead to the Civil