The 1855 Murder Case of Missouri Versus Celia, an Enslaved Woman
An Exercise in Historical Imagination

Reconstructs the conviction of a slave girl found guilty of beating and burning to death her owner, the man who fathered her three children. This book pieces together the most probable sequence of events that erupted in the brutal murder of Robert Newsom and the mistrial that condemned Celia to death by hanging.

This book reconstructs the conviction of a slave girl found guilty of beating and burning to death her owner, the man who fathered her three children. The political climate of pre-Civil War Missouri did not favor justice for an enslaved girl who confessed to murdering her owner, even though those acquainted with the case believed she could not have committed the deed. Whatever really happened at the Newsom farm that led to such explosive violence was scattered in contradictory fragments, in altered court records, distorted news releases, vague census data, and the elided bits of memory and hearsay manipulated for the trial and discarded after Celia's execution. This book pieces together the most probable sequence of events that erupted in the brutal murder of Robert Newsom and the mistrial that condemned Celia to death by hanging. "All Alone" reveals the motives and identity of the most likely murderer and explains what might have motivated Celia's incredible confession.