Celia, A Slave

Chapter Five, “The Trial,” is an account of Celia’s trial for the murder Newsom, which began on October 9, 1855, with Judge William Augustus Hall presiding.  Hall, who was born in Maine, raised in Virginia, and educated at Yale before finally settling in Missouri, was an active Democrat in Missouri politics with “strong Unionist sentiments” (68).   Hall chose John Jameson, Nathan Chapman Kouns, and Isaac Boulware, all of whom McLaurin describes as savvy political choices for Celia’s defense.  As McLaurin notes, Hall needed to appoint Celia an attorney who was capable and politically neutral, “one whose presence would make it difficult for slavery’s critics to label the trial a farce or shame, and one who would not arouse the emotions of Missouri’s more militant proslavery faction in the process” (70).  Jameson was a slave owner himself, but not vocal in slavery debates; he was affable and unambitious, but a talented courtroom attorney whose skill at reading a jury was well known.  His legal team of Kouns and Boulware came from well-respected slaveholding families and could be counted on to do the legal research necessary to provide a good defense.