McLaurin uses Celia's story to expose the tensions that troubled the fabric of antebellum Southern society. Celia's case shows how a master's exploitation of power over an individual slave forced whites to make moral decisions about the nature of slavery. McLaurin strongly emphasizes the role of gender, exploring the degree to which female slaves were sexually demoralized, the circumstances that often prevented white women from ending such abuse, and the helplessness of male slaves to support enslaved women. Placing the case in the context of the slavery debates of the 1850s, it also analyzes how the legal system was used to justify slavery. By granting slaves certain statutory rights (which were usually voided by the customary prerogatives of masters), Southerners could argue that they observed moral restraint in the operations of their peculiar businesses..