Celia, a Slave

Chapter Seven: FINAL DISPOSITION

Chapter Seven HE exact nature of Celia's appeal to the Missouri Supreme Court is unknown, for no copy of the appeals document exists. The list of what the defense perceived as irregularities in the conduct of Celia's trial, however, provides a good indication ofthe languageof the appeal. In whatever language the appeal was couched, Judge Hall's failure to issue a stay of execution order rendered it of no avail unless the supreme court acted quickly. As the defensewaited for an answerfrom the supremecourt, Celia's execution date drew nearer. By early November it was apparent to Jameson and his colleagues that a very real probability existed that Celia would be executed before the supreme court considered her appeal. At this juncture, Celia's case took an unexpected turn, one that underscores the moraldilemmaher case had thrust upon the people of Fulton and CallawayCounty.Asher date of execution approached, the injustice not only of the trial and its verdict, but also of Hall's refusal to grant a stay of execution, convinced her defense that drasticaction must be taken if Celia was to avoid being hanged on November 16. On the night of November 11, Celia and another black named Matt, also under sentence ofdeath, escaped from the Callaway Countyjail. Evidence in Celia's file indicates that the escape was planned, that Celia was removed from the jail to prevent her death before a ruling from the supreme court, and that her attorneys, if not involved in her actual escape, were at least aware that she had been freed for that purpose. Writing to the supreme court weeks after Celia's 104 Fi:Nr.A.Xj x>xsj=»osimoCT T FINAL DISPOSITION "escape," Jameson, Boulware, and Kouns explained that she did not accomplish her escape unaided. They acknowledged that she "was taken out by some one," although they gave no indication ofwho that someone might have been. In this extraordinary document, addressed to Abiel Leonard, a circuit court attorney of exceptional ability who had that same year been elected to the supreme court, the three defense attorneys admitted to strong personal feelings about the case. "We feel more than ordinary interest in behalf of the girl Celia," they explained, "believing that she did the act (of slaying Newsom) to prevent a forced sexual assault on the part of Newsom." In a surprisingly blatant effort to bring political pressure, or at least the weight ofpublic opinion, to bear upon the court, the defense also revealed that Celia's case had divided the white community. They informed the supreme court justices that "the greater portion ofthe community here are much interested in her behalf," clearly implying that the majority ofCallaway's citizensopposed Hall's refusal to issue a stay order, if not Celia's conviction.1 The defense's admission that Celia was deliberately broken out of jail to prevent her execution before a supreme court ruling is indirectly supported by a newspaper account of the "escape." The press account, gleaned from the columns of the Fulton Telegraph and carried by Columbia's Dollar Missouri Journal, notes that Matt, the other slave who escaped, "was returned the next morning," or November 12. Celia, on the other hand, remained at large on November 15, the date on which the report was filed. That Matt "was returned" indicates that he was removed from jail by a party or parties and then purposely and immediately returned by them. The newspaper writer did not saythat Matt "was captured," a term that would not have indicated that he was surrendered by a third party.2 That both Matt and Celia were convicted of murder and yet only Matt "was returned" further suggests that Celia's escape was planned, and that she remained free because certain individuals desired that she do so. Precisely how long Celia remained at large is not known, but she was not "recaptured," as her defense attorneys explained to the supreme court, until after her original execution date had passed. The evidence in her file strongly 105 CELIA, A SLAVE suggests that Celia washidden by those who engineered her escape until after her original execution date had passed, then returned to her captors. This series ofevents isstrongly implied in defense counsel's letter to the supreme court, which states that Celia was "not taken until after the i6th of Nov.," and that the circuit court had set another date, December...