The green line indicates the Missouri Compromise Line, 36’30” | Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons, Sarah: Today, it’s common for people to interpret the many failed compromises of the first half of the nineteenth century as good things: they were attempts to avoid the tragedy of war. He did not have small children that needed a stepmother to raise them. But that had to happen. It was written in from the beginning. Celia was purchased with the intent that she be a sex slave. ‘I didn’t always know where my mother was, I didn’t know where my father was, but I always knew where Demetrie was. ‘That the whole South is just one small town, and we pass each other in the grocery store every day is a myth I love to perpetuate,’ she says. By Kathryn Stockett. For instance, she argues, Hemings may have felt a great number of things about Jefferson, and she might have also thought of her sexual relationship with him as a tool at her disposal. She could also have felt tenderness or love or ambivalence for him, and he for her. We don’t know whether he was only sleeping the night, or living in the cabin with her, or whether Newsom was aware that he was doing this, but it seems very likely that either he did not. Faced with only reasonable doubt and the legality of her confession, the jury had little choice but to convict. Then, Powell threatened Celia with torture, telling her he “had a rope provided for her if she did not tell.” Celia refused to give in. Sarah: Right. It was a strange feeling to realise that Demetrie had another life; it was my first awakening that she was a person with an identity outside the Stockett family.’, In the book the most brutal member of the Junior League is Miss Hilly Holbrook, who is outspoken and contemptuous of the maids, but in reality, Stockett says, there weren’t many people who spoke about race so openly, at least when she was growing up. Less than half owned slaves, and were generally fairly poor farmers. She had no way of postponing her execution date except for an appeal to the Missouri Supreme Court. It was not unusual, and while what Robert Newsom did in purchasing a very young slave for the express reason of sexual concubinage was blatant, it was far from socially condemned. My mother doesn’t have a maid – she’s a liberal. Stockett has a very evocative turn of phrase. By the time light broke, nothing remained of Robert Newsom except ashes. In plain English, that would mean, simply, that slaves have human rights. He would be the likely suspect, and it didn’t take much evidence to convict a slave of murder. ‘I had a lot of fun writing Miss Celia,’ Stockett says. the cornerstone of Southern society. It horrified our family. Landed men commanded deference, and white women, children, social inferiors and slaves all were expected to defer to the master. She completely endorses Stockett’s use of dialect, and the way she has captured the characters of the maids. Finally, she built a roaring fire in the fine, large fireplace Newsom had built for her, folded the body up as best she could, and shoved him in. There really was no chance of explaining the situation, and even if she did, a slave killing her master was inexcusable. ‘I want to stop that moment from coming – and it come in ever white child’s life – when they start to think that coloured folks ain’t as good as whites.’, Stockett is telling me about her grandparents, who played a big part in her life when she was a child. ‘I never knew about it! Offer soft foods, such as bananas or pudding, which will be easier on baby’s throat than hard, scratchy foods, like toast. Almost all slave owners owned between 1-10 enslaved people. If she needed the doctor we took her, and we paid. ", "Hey Celia, I want to buy the bagon the screen.". Judge William hall delivered all of the prosecution’s instructions, but chose not to give the jury the instructions from the defense that centered on the issue of motive. As Melton McLaurin writes, “The compromise and the defeat of the Tallmadge amendment gave notice of the South’s commitment to the permanence of slavery. And that was the understanding: you come and work for our family, you look after us for the rest of our lives, and we’ll look after you for the rest of your life. Change ), A teaching guide for The Help with questions to get you thinking and key quotations, St Peter's School, A-Level English Literature course, An essay on postcoloniality in The Help – St Peter's A-Level Englsih Literature, A close reading of The Help with comprehension questions and discussions on theme and style – St Peter's A-Level Englsih Literature. Her grandmother Caroline grew up in Shanghai in a family of missionaries (‘Grandmother went over there with her family to save the souls of the heathens’), returning to Mississippi when war broke out. Relax and have We don’t know what Newsom said, and we don’t know what he felt. ‘He was good friends with [the writer] Eudora Welty; she had TB and at the time the only thing recommended for TB was fresh air and sunshine, so she’d go and hang out at the stables; but she’d get upset if those men said too many curse words.’, On the other side of town, Stockett grew up with her older brother and sister, Susan and Rob. A half essay exemplar for CHAUCER – How does Chaucer present power, sexuality and speech? Smartphones, Laptops & Tablets, Wearables and More, Products, Solutions and Services for Enterprise, Products, Solutions and Services for Carrier, The smoother and safer way to surf online, Search for your favorite mobile apps, news, images, videos and more, "Send a text to Steve saying I'll see you in 30 minutes. Another child, Billy, was a little bit of a mystery: he was born after Virginia had moved back in with her father, without a husband. For permission to publish any Dig: A History Podcast or History Buffs Podcast episodes in whole or in part please contact the Executive Producer at hello@digpodcast.org. Wherever you are and whatever you are doing, with the help of Celia, you William Powell, Newsom’s neighbor, singled George out for questioning. This seemed like a very ominous precursor to much, much worse things. It also meant that there was an incentive for slave masters to rape their female slaves. ‘Yes.’, And did you just accept that at the time? The Help took five years to write, got at least 45 rejection letters from agents, and when finally published went straight into the American bestseller lists. And of course that is exactly how Mississippi did things, so she fitted right in.’, She married Kathryn’s grandfather, Robert Stockett Sr, and employed a maid called Demetrie to bring up their two sons, one of whom was Kathryn’s father, Robert Jr. (‘We call them maids,’ Kathryn says. She cleans her own house. Black women were sexually available at all times, people believed that they were biologically built to be sexually available. ‘It was a place where people gathered; a lot of older men came there to sit on the porch and talk; people would say that there were more laws made on the porch of Stockett Stables than in the state capital.’, Robert Snr, (to whom the book is dedicated), who died only recently, aged 98, was 6ft 4in and wore knee-length riding boots. Required fields are marked *. ready to help. A stone fireplace in a slave cabin at Belle Mead Plantation, Tennessee | Flickr CC-BY-SA. I kept my eyes open and my mouth shut.’, Stockett would beg her grandparents to be allowed to go to Demetrie’s house but they always said no. White women often believed that enslaved women tempted and entrapped white men, luring them into sexual relationships, especially white women who felt trapped in loveless marriages while watching their husbands sneaking out to the slave cabins and little mixed-race children who resembled their husbands. In an effort to solve the problem, New York congressman James Tallmadge tried to add an amendment to the statehood bill that would require Missouri to prohibit any additional slaves from entering the state, and would require slaves born in the state to be freed by their 25th birthday. Instead, the murder of Robert Newsom was a flash point in the most serious and long-simmering conflict of the 19th century: slavery, its expansion, and the sexual violence that lay at its heart. Celia was interviewed again on the night before her execution, and she recounted the same story. During this time, Newsom was still making regular visits to the cabin to rape Celia, and it doesn’t seem likely, given the efforts he took to isolate her, that he would be very supportive or tolerant of her having relationships with other men. This time, it was unclear who the father was: Robert Newsom or George. Your voice identity is stored in a safe area on your device, and won't be sent to accurate product information, specifications, and features, HUAWEI may make real-time adjustments to text I was 16. Celia listens to you, answers your questions and helps you get things done hands-free. Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. But the help always know." But Newsome still didn’t have a wife. Celia has been certified by the European Privacy Seal for GDPR What does … Between 1850 and 1855, Celia bore two babies – most likely both fathered by Newsom – that were raised in this cabin. While the daughters and grandchildren tried to determine where Newsome had gone, Celia turned her attention to the large heaps of ashes in her fireplace. Change ), You are commenting using your Twitter account. On September 11 she was working in her apartment when the planes hit the twin towers, and due to some sort of power surge, everything was wiped off her hard disc, and she had no landline and no mobile phone reception. descriptions and images in the foregoing information pages, so that they match the product performance, Well, the answer lies in the fact that in 1850, Robert Newsom had been widowed for just over one year. It’s a risky thing to do – being white and well off – to write in a black voice, especially writing in the vernacular. It was much more nuanced in real life – at least from a white person’s perspective. Suspicion immediately fell on 19-year-old Celia. It has sold a quarter of a million copies so far in the US, and is still selling briskly. On September 14, 1767, a massive crowd gathered round the road to Tyburn, thronging around the hangman’s cart, throwing vegetable peels and other refuse. One other thing. James Akin, A Philosophic Cock | Charles Pierce Collection, American Antiquarian Society. Sarah: Right off the top, we want to acknowledge that all of what we’re going to say here about Celia and her life as a slave comes from the work of historian Melton McLaurin, who taught history at the University of North Carolina: Wilmington for decades. But finally, Celia gave in. Sarah: That doesn’t sound all that different from the kinds of stories that you might hear on a modern true crime podcast. In Missouri, farmers typically owned just a few slaves, and those slaves typically worked alongside farmers in their fields or at their other work, whether it be barrel or wheelmaking or running a shop in town. you can keep your everyday tasks streamlined and make the most of life. ‘Every time I got another rejection letter, after I got over the part where I felt like shit, I’d go back to the manuscript and revisit it, and there were certain things that I realised didn’t work.’, Spencer comes from Montgomery, Alabama, where her mother worked as a maid. She didn’t even notice.’, In 2001 Stockett was in New York, working in magazine publishing, on the business side, and decided to take a month off to finish something she was writing. What could she do? I considered it the death knell of the Union.” John Quincy Adams saw the controversy over the compromise as “a mere preamble – a title page to a great tragic volume.” To many Americans in the early 19th century, it was abundantly clear that this was not a smart way to avoid a civil war; this was a clear indication that all of the attempts in the Constitution to appease both non-slaveholding and slaveholding factions had failed, and would continue to fail. Lower than white trash, sweet-natured with peroxide blond hair and very tight dresses, Miss Celia is despised by all the snobbish Junior Leaguers; she can’t play bridge and she can’t cook but wants to pretend to her new husband, Mister Johnny, that she can, so she secretly hires Minny. buy, play your favourite videos and control your music without picking up the phone. Elizabeth: Celia knew immediately that if Newsom was discovered, she would be executed. She sat by the flames all night, pushing the body around to ensure it was entirely consumed by the flames and crushing bones into ash. The Brutal Murder of Bridget Cleary in 1895 Ireland. She tried to explain that the pregnancy was difficult and she was sick, asking them to intercede with their father to stop coming to her for sex while she was in this condition. Hers was the hardest to capture. And I’m Elizabeth The amendment was eventually voted down, and Missouri entered as a slave state with the compromise that Maine – originally the northern reaches of Massachusetts – would enter as a free state to keep the balance. This was part of the experience of being enslaved and part of the experience of enslaving. It was at that point that Robert Newsom decided to purchase Celia, who was about fourteen years old. As unmarried young women, they were entirely economically reliant on their father. First, she acknowledged that Newsom had come to her cabin and insisted that Celia have sex with him. Either way, George told Powell that Newsom’s “last walking” had been from the house to Celia’s cabin. If she did not stop Newsom, George – who she likely loved – would leave her. He’d rather get beat with a broom than go back out in that nonsense.’. In fact, in early December 1855, as Celia was likely brought back to jail from her escape and was awaiting the appeals decision, the Wakarusa War, a small skirmish in the long Bleeding Kansas war, took place near Lawrence, Kansas. That doesn’t excuse or negate the power imbalance or the fact that, for instance, Jefferson never freed Hemings, but it does add significant nuance to that relationship. Instead, we’re going to make you think pretty deeply about the culture that made this murder possible – and may have, in fact, made it excusable. This added a significant new strain to the already fraught triad. We also need to consider the possibility that the daughters utterly dismissed Celia’s protests for racist reasons. Instead, he only read to them the instructions that focused on reasonable doubt and the legality of her confession; nothing regarding her rape or the justifiability of Newsom’s murder was ever uttered to the jury. **All data in the foregoing pages are theoretical values obtained by HUAWEI internal laboratories through Sarah: Today, we’re talking about a very real murder that was committed by a very real woman who lived in Missouri in the 1850s. He was raping her. Now, it’s not at all clear what George expected Celia do. As you might remember from your US History I class way back when, this was the result of the 1820 Missouri Compromise, an attempt to keep the peace between the slave-holding states of the South and Northern states, which were either already free, or in the process of ending slavery. 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