State v. Celia

Celia was a slave woman who had been raped repeatedly for years by her master, and one night she decided to fight him off. She hit him on the head and he died. Celia was charged with murder, and although Missouri law permitted a woman to physically resist being raped, the Missouri courts held that this slave woman had no right under the law to defend herself against further sexual molestation. Celia was hanged, but her execution was delayed so that she could give birth to yet another child from her master's sexual assaults.