Celia’s Story: Missouri teen vindicated 175 years later; pardoned for slave owner’s murder thanks to family’s fight for justice

CALLAWAY COUNTY, Mo. (First Alert 4) - She was only 19 years old when she was sentenced to death for killing her slave master, Robert Newsom, six miles south of Fulton.

After more than a century, the guilty verdict of a slave named Celia was overturned and pardoned by the State of Missouri in December 2024.

It was one of Governor Mike Parson’s final acts before leaving office.

“Celia’s pardon and Governor Parson’s actions actually renews my hope. We need that hope in such a challenging time in our nation’s history,” says her great-great-granddaughter, Pamela Westbrooks-Hodge.

Celia was born into slavery in 1836. In 1850, at 14 years old she was sold in Audrain County to Robert Newsom, a man three times her age. She was taken to his Callaway County farm and became his first female slave.

“On the trip back to the farm he raped her for the first time,” says Bryce Gordon, Kingdom of Callaway Historical Society Research Center Director. “His wife had just died, and he was pretty much looking for a companion.”

“From the moment she’s purchased by him, it just sounds like an actual nightmare,” Casandra Turner, Celia’s fourth great-granddaughter says.

DNA evidence and genealogy reports confirm Newsom impregnated the teen from 1850-1855.

“Celia’s tragic story of perpetual sexual abuse during chattel slavery is the common narrative in so many enslaved women,” says Westbrooks-Hodge. “To understand how common and pervasive this rape was, it makes me sick.”

“He just had his way with her whenever he felt like it up until she died,” Gordon says.

According to court documents, 19-year-old, Celia Newsom itted to beating Robert Newsom to death in June 1855. The 68-page report details the confession, “she burnt him in the Negro cabin with wood and boards.”

“She told him she didn’t want to be with him that she was pregnant and couldn’t do this,” Gordon says. “He showed up anyway and proceeded to force himself on her. The story has it that she clubbed him over the head and kept hitting him until he was dead. Then, she disposed of the body supposedly in her fireplace.”

Celia would later be convicted of first-degree murder and died by lynching. Historians say she was the last African American to be given a trial in Callaway County until the 1900s.

“Nobody knows where the hanging took place. Nobody knows where she was buried and that was just the end of it,” Bryce says.

“She was a mother. She had a daughter already. She was expecting another baby as the trial was happening,” says, Haley Sylvia, Kingdom Of Callaway Historical Curator. “She couldn’t claim self-defense because she was a woman of color, and in today’s society, she would have been able to.”

Celia’s daughter, Jennie, a product of rape would go on to continue the lineage from her mother and father. She gave birth to 13 children, leaving behind a biological trace of the sexual abuse.

“It’s really difficult for us to find out exactly where we come from. So, it’s always been important to me to know where I’ve come from. To know my history,” Turner says.

First Alert 4 spoke to descendants on both sides of the tragedy who are celebrating Celia’s pardon together.

“How would you as a Caucasian American feel if your 14-year-old daughter was stripped away from you?” says slave owner Robert Newsom’s fourth great-granddaughter Nancy Fogle-Compos. “I’m glad she stuck up for herself because if she didn’t stick up for herself we wouldn’t be where we are today.”

Relatives of Robert Newsom still live in the Callaway County area. The farm is owned by the National Forest Service.

A foundation has been started to get Celia’s story into the history books.

There are plans to introduce a humanity education bill for 6th-12th graders in her memory. The goal would be to teach local history on dehumanized Missourians including Native Americans, Irish and German immigrants.

The family is working to get a stretch of highway in Calloway County renamed in honor of Celia.

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