Throughout the reading the author’s depiction of the time this story took place is one of segregation entirely. Not just segregation of color but of gender, power, and given right. Although women are important, the men are the alpha and the omega when it comes to Newsome family and others in Missouri. Celia, a person of strength and dedication was unfortunately born during a time of suffrage along with others. Upon reading further, we are able to see a “Southerners” right to property and right to do what they will to that property. Owning slaves was a social way of life. Robert first purchased Celia in 1850 from an unknown seller for unknown reasons. “What is known is that from the moment he purchased Celia, Newsome regarded her as both his property and his concubine”. (McLaurin, 22). For it was the way of the south to own slaves for the owner’s privilege. Robert Newsome took this to heart and realized that the laws that were in place were laws on paper only. To him and most of the owners of slaves at the time saw the laws as something that must be put on paper but never carried out. If those law were to have been enforced it would have been a moot point, due to the pressure of the man in that county. He therefore continued to have sexual relations with Celia against her will. The sexual abuse even produced two children which Robert fathered. It was something that men of the time believed, they believed that God had given them a right to do with their own property as they pleased. Even with the fact that the masters knew that all slaves were property they still understood that they had a right to be and live. However, because their color, the slaves and in this case Celia was already fighting an uphill battle. Any law at the time was very slim to rule in favor of a slave. It was part of society to favor the white owners when it came to the laws of slavery. In the south there was no universal law for both black sl