Chronology
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Celia's
Story

(Statement before Justice of Peace)
Trial
Testimony

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  FAMOUS TRIALS SERIES (UMKC SCHOOL OF LAW)

Slave cabin
Celia, A Slave, Trial (1855)
by Douglas O. Linder (2011)

For nineteen-year-old Celia, a slave on a Missouri farm, five years of being repeatedly raped by her middle-aged owner was enough.  On the night of June 23, 1855, she would later tell a reporter, "the Devil got into me" and Celia fatally clubbed her master as he approached her in her cabin.  The murder trial of the slave Celia, coming at a time when the controversy over the issue of slavery reached new heights, raised fundamental questions about the rights of slaves to fight back against the worst of slavery's abuses.... [CONTINUED]