Thank you, Celia

Dear Celia,

History may characterize you in many ways, using differing language, but I am writing to tell you that you are the embodiment of womanhood. You were enslaved, raped, tried, and killed because you did not fit someone else’s definition of what it meant to be a woman. Although “slavewomen” were left out of the classification for womanhood, you demonstrated more strength, bravery, and resilience that most white ladies or men at the time. In refusing to succumb to the sexual assault of your master, even while battling illness and carrying a child, you proved that womanhood was emblematic of valor and fight. The word woman was reserved for those who possessed whiteness, but if anyone knew what womanhood was truly like it was you. You were forced to grow up too quickly, enslaved in a life that left you little freedoms, yet you persisted. As an enslaved black woman, you were expected to work endlessly, and mother thanklessly, but you still showed courage and the willingness to fight for your livelihood.

Celia, you were killed because dominant culture failed to see you for who you were. Like you, Sojourner Truth, and countless other Black women lost to history, you did the hard work of a woman with none of the rights or privileges. You were someone’s daughter, and someone’s mother, and you were robbed of the opportunity to show how successful you could be because of a flawed system. Your blackness does not make you any less of a woman, and your actions under duress prove that you are more than worthy of the title. The unfortunate and angering circumstances of your death will not be forgotten and neither will your bravery and sacrifice. Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham introduced me to your story, and she speaks passionately about the meaning of womanhood in the African American community. Celia, thank you for showing us how to be a woman, and how to fight against forces that attempt to weaken and silence us.