Celia, A Slave is a novel that tells the story of a teenage girl located on the banks of the Missouri River in Calloway County. The girl's story defined the importance of gender in this historical speech of this slave girl. Among the newly settled slave owners in Calloway County in 1850 was Robert Newsom, a man of status in terms of wealth and power. This is manifested in the novel because many slave owners made their living by purchasing slaves. Reflecting this is the case of Robert Newsom who made his living by purchasing six slaves to be responsible for it. He was a very successful man both economically and socially and also a very powerful individual among his family members. But the death of his wife marked an important turning point in his life. The death of his partner forces him to seek a replacement by purchasing a slave who will replace the sexual desire he lacked from his late wife. Newsom embarked on a journey and purchased Celia, a slave who was fourteen years old at the time and the relationship between master and slave established a sexual nature that will always change until a tragedy occurs. Author Melton A. McLaurin expressed the importance of self-motivation with regards to gender role. And Melton also represented everything that defines success because he was wealthy, he was a hardworking man, able to create a solid balance in maintaining a strong family home and at the same time, he was able to contribute to the socio-economic development of the agricultural sector. which the author describes as an “agricultural economic boom” (McLaurin page 11). The type of balance was a primary requirement only for free white men. On the other hand, white women relied solely on middle of paper......r 21 1855. History has just demonstrated that slaves had no legal protection when their masters raped them despite the fact that "the second Section 29 of the Missouri Statutes of 1845 prohibited anyone "from unlawfully taking a woman against her will and by force, threat, or coercion, compelling her to be defiled," Judge William Hall declined to state to the jury that the slave Celia fell within the meaning of "any woman" – giving the jury no latitude to consider Celia's murder of her sexually abusive master as an act of justifiable self-defense. Cited: 1. a slave state of Missouri c. Celia: 1855 - Celia Speaks, Trial Begins, Before the Missouri Supreme Court, Suggestions for Further Reading2. McLaurin, Melton A. Celia, a slave. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1991. Print.