About Celia
Morally Innocent, Legally Guilty
Celia Newsom was an enslaved African American woman born around 1836. In 1850, when Celia was just 14 years old, Robert Newsom - a 60-year-old widowed farmer from Callaway County, Missouri, originally from Greenbrier County, West Virginia - purchased Celia in Audrain County, Missouri, to be his concubine.
For nearly five years, Celia suffered repeated sexual assaults at the hands of Robert Newsom. During this period, she bore two children, Vine (Vina) and Jennie (Jane or Virginia). By the summer of 1855, she had reached her breaking point. On June 23, 1855—despite her repeated pleas for him to stop—Newsom entered her cabin once again to assault her. Nineteen years old and pregnant, Celia asserted her God-given rights to self-determination, human agency, and bodily autonomy, and defended herself. She struck Newsom on the head with a stick, killing him. That night, she burned his body in her fireplace and disposed of the ashes the next morning. When questioned by Callaway County authorities about his disappearance, Celia eventually confessed, detailing the horrific abuse she had endured.
Despite Missouri’s 1845 law criminalizing sexual intercourse with “any woman” by force and against her will, Callaway County Circuit Court Judge William Hall instructed the jury that this protection did not extend to an enslaved woman resisting her enslaver. Under his instruction, an enslaved woman was considered the legal property of her enslaver, not a citizen, and thus had no recognized right to bodily autonomy or self-defense against him.
Bound by these instructions, the all-white, all-male jury was left with no legal basis to acquit her on grounds of self-defense, ultimately convicting Celia of first-degree murder. Sentenced to death by hanging by Judge Hall, Celia’s original execution was set for November 16, 1855. However, Celia escaped from jail for nearly 2 weeks, briefly delaying the execution. On December 14, 1855, the Missouri Supreme Court denied her appeal. On December 21, 1855, at just 19 years old, Celia was unjustly executed by hanging at the Callaway County Courthouse in Fulton, Missouri. Celia’s exact interment site is unknown.
The Fate of Celia’s Daughters
The Lewis Family, circa 1915: George Lewis Sr.,(front row- middle) Jennie Newsom Broadwater Lewis (Back row middle) and their adult children. (Note- Jennie died in 1903, but was painted into this family photo posthumously)
Jennie Newsom Broadwater Lewis
Jennie married George Lewis, Sr. of Boonville, Missouri on August 23, 1870, in St. Louis, Missouri. George Sr. worked as a laborer, and Jennie as a washerwoman. While some Celia historians suggest Jennie and George had up to 19 children (including stillbirths), the 1900 U.S. Census shows that Jennie and George Sr. reported having had 13 children between 1871 and 1894. Ten of those children-grandchildren of Celia and Robert Newsom-were named as follows: Guy, Frank, Arthur, Woodruff Chester, Clara, Charles, Virginia (Jennie), Edgar P., Julia, and George Jr.
Jennie died at the age of 48 on February 18, 1903, in St. Louis, Missouri, and is buried in Greenwood Cemetery, an historic African American burial site in St. Louis County currently undergoing restoration.
Five of Jennie and George Sr.’s children - Frank, Charles, Clara, Virginia and Julia - went on to marry and have children of their own, continuing the family legacy. Today, the second, third, fourth, and fifth generation descendants of Celia and Robert Newsom live across the country, contributing to both public service and the private sector. With support from Celia Historians and Ancestry.com Pro Genealogists, descendants of Celia and Robert remain actively engaged in researching Celia’s life, discovering additional descendants, and strengthening family bonds.
Celia had two daughters, Vine (Vina) born circa 1851, and Jennie (Jane or Virginia) born on October 2, 1854. According to court transcripts, Celia stated that Robert Newsom fathered her second child, Jennie - a fact later confirmed through descendant DNA testing. Both children were listed as property in the estate of Robert Newsom. According to court records, while awaiting execution, Celia gave birth to a third child who was stillborn. The burial site of that child remains unknown.
Nine months after Celia’s execution, both daughters were sold at auction in Callaway County for $496.50 on September 1, 1856 as recorded in Robert Newsom’s probate records. The fate of Vine (Vina) and her descendants is unknown to Sister Jennie's (Jane’s) descendants, though research continues. The younger daughter, Jennie (Jane or Virginia) appears to have been purchased by Callaway County Farmer, Guy Broadwater, based on his 1860 slave census schedule.
The Arc of the Moral Universe Will Bend Towards Justice, But Only if We Pull It.
Minister Theodore Parker/Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr./ Congresswoman Shontel M. Brown
After months of determined advocacy by the descendants of Celia and Robert Newsom, Celia’s Pardon Team, the City of Fulton, Missouri, Fulton community leaders, the Callaway County legal community, and countless behind-the-scenes supporters, Missouri Governor Michael L. Parson granted a posthumous pardon to Celia on December 20, 2024.
Additionally, Senate Bill 348 established Celia Day, Human Trafficking Awareness Week, and the Celia Memorial Highway. The bill passed both houses of the Missouri Legislature in the spring of 2025, was signed into law on July 2, 2025, by Missouri Governor Michael L. Kehoe and takes effect on August 28, 2025! With the Governor’s historic action, the Celia Newsom Legacy Foundation’s goal of securing formal state recognition and justice for Celia is fulfilled!
Heartfelt thanks to Governor Michael L. Parson, Governor Michael L. Kehoe, Senator Travis Fitzwater (R), Representative Jim Schulte (R) of Callaway County, and Senator Brian Williams (D) of St. Louis County, for their legislative sponsorship and steadfast support.
Celia’s justice journey continues…. Click here to actively support these ongoing efforts.
