The Lost German Slave Girl: The Extraordinary True Story Of Sally Miller And Her Fight For Freedom in Old New Orleans [Hardcover]

John Bailey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 6, 2004

It is a spring morning in New Orleans, 1843. In the Spanish Quarter, on a street lined with flophouses and gambling dens, Madame Carl recognizes the face of a German girl who disappeared twenty-five years earlier. But the olive-skinned woman is a slave, with no memory of a "white" past. And yet her resemblance to her mother is striking, and she bears two telltale birthmarks. Had a defenseless European orphan been illegally enslaved, or was she an imposter? So begins one of the most celebrated and sensational trials of nineteenth-century America. In brilliant novelistic detail, award-winning historian John Bailey uses Miller's dramatic trial to describe the fascinating laws and customs surrounding slavery, immigration, and racial mixing. Did Miller, as her relatives sought to prove, arrive from Germany under perilous circumstances as an indentured servant or was she, as her master claimed, a slave for life? The trial pits a humble community of German immigrants against a hardened capitalist and one of the most flamboyant lawyers of his time. Bailey follows the case's incredible twists and turns all the way to the Supreme Court and comes to a shocking conclusion in this investigative history that reads like a suspense novel.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Who was Sally Miller: was she Salomé Müller, a long-lost German immigrant girl enslaved by a Southern planter? Or was she really a light-skinned black woman, shrewd enough to exploit her only opportunity for freedom? Bailey (The White Diver of Broome) keeps us guessing until the end in this page-turning true courtroom drama of 19th-century New Orleans. Bailey opens the story in 1843, when a friend of the Schubers—a local family of German immigrants—discovered Miller outside her owner Louis Belmonti's house. Struck by her remarkable resemblance to their late cousin Dorothea Müller, and unusual birthmarks exactly like he daughter Salomé's, the Schubers claimed Sally as kin and set about trying to prove her identity as Salomé and obtain her freedom. Bailey brings to life the fierce legal proceedings with vivid strokes. The case was controversial because it wasn't Belmonti but her previous owner, the perfect Southern gentleman John Fitz Miller, who faced disgrace if proved to have forced a white German girl into slavery. Bailey elucidates the bewildering array of possible identities turned up for Sally by numerous witnesses as well as the complexities of 19th-century Louisiana slave law and the status of black women. Sally herself remains an enigma at the center of this highly engrossing tale.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School–A fascinating mystery obsessed and polarized New Orleans from 1843 until its shocking conclusion in 1849. A close-knit community of German immigrants made an amazing claim: they had seen a young slave woman whom they were sure was the daughter of a relative who had sailed with them from Holland years earlier. After her parents died, the girl and her sister had been sent off to become indentured servants. No one knew what had happened to them, but the community was positive that the slave woman known as Mary or Brigit Wilson was really Salome Muller. Lawyers were assembled, and the battle lines were drawn. The Germans maintained that an unscrupulous former owner, John Fitz Miller, had enslaved an indentured child and later sold her to her current owner. Miller hired a "dream team" to press his claim that Mary was merely a clever slave, duping a bunch of credulous immigrants. Adding to the puzzle was her lack of memory of a German childhood and Miller's inability to prove that he had bought her. Bailey has provided a rich, vibrant New Orleans setting. Using court transcripts, pamphlets produced by both sides, newspaper stories, and biographies, he has produced a courtroom thriller with unexpected twists and turns. The details he includes about the horrors of the immigrant experience, and his discussions of laws governing slave owners, make this a valuable history lesson as well.–Kathy Tewell, Chantilly Regional Library, VA

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press; 1st Ed. (U.S.) edition (December 6, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0871139219
• ISBN-13: 978-0871139214
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #392,182 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

John Bailey (b. 1944) is an Australian author with five books to his credit. Bailey's approach to writing has been to create a strong narrative against the background of exotic or remote locations. His first book, The Wire Classroom 1969 (Angus and Robertson), described colonial life in New Guinea. His second, The Moon Baby 1972 (Angus and Robertson), was set in the future in an unnamed metropolis. His third, The White Divers of Broome 2001 (Macmillan), concerns pearl shell diving in the coastal town of Broome in the north of Western Australia.

The Lost German Slave Girl, 2003 (Macmillan) relates the true story of a slave woman in Louisiana who claimed to be a German immigrant who had been illegally taken into bondage when she was a child.

His latest book, Mr Stuart's Track 2006 (Macmillan), reveals the forgotten life of John McDouall Stuart, the first explorer to cross Australia from coast to coast.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars fascinating historical fact with some necessary fictional ex, November 28, 2004

By 

Jona Pavlova "jonapavlova" (Cairns, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Lost German Slave Girl: The Extraordinary True Story Of Sally Miller And Her Fight For Freedom in Old New Orleans (Hardcover)

This is a fascinating story in its own right, and a horrifying account of what slavery was like on a day-to-day basis for the people who lived with it in the Mississippi area. It's the little details the author gives that bring home how degrading the institution was for slaves and slave owners alike. Surprisingly the author is an Australian lawyer, I bought and read the book in paperback in Australia, but his research in the US has been meticulous. He has had to use fiction to fill in parts of the slave girl's story but this enhances rather than detracts from the overall narrative. I highly recommend it, very suitable for the thinking person's Christmas stocking!

34 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Slavery in the South exposed in a new manner in this fascinating true story, August 6, 2005

By 

A. Woodley "Patroness, Janeites, the Austen list" (New Zealand) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Lost German Slave Girl: The Extraordinary True Story Of Sally Miller And Her Fight For Freedom in Old New Orleans (Hardcover)

You know, I thought this would be an incredibly dry book, especially having read the introduction in which the author, Bailey, talks about how he came across it. He was researching the minutiae of slave law in the South at the time. What rights did they have, did slaves ever bring cases against their masters etc....then he came across the most intriguing story - that of a slave girl, Sally Miller - who may - or may not have been Salome Muller - a lost German migrant who was bonded with her father into work to pay for her passage from Europe to America.

Sally Miller was the spitting image of Salome Muller's mother who died on the voyage to America, and her Muller Aunt insisted that she had the birthmarks which Salome had, all her friends and relatives were also convinced. However Miller had been sold as a slave to a master who would not release her, in order for her to assume her new life with her family she had to be formally proved to be Salome Muller and therefore not able to be taken back into slavery again - and so began a vitriolic court case.

The real strength of this book is that it is actually not Dry at all. Bailey points out the weaknesses in his book early on - that there are not written records for some of it, and where these don't exist he has made guesses at what happened in between based on the outcome

What I found ultimately the most fascinating is that this exposes the strengths and weaknesses of the slavery system in the South compared to the North (neither of which I will point out right now was ideal!) however the information on legal rights they had available is enormously fascinating - in some cases Slaves did have the right to legal redress, if accused of murder etc - although the author is at pains to point out it very much depended on the Judge available.

This is also enormously interesting for the depth of research into the migrants from Europe to America in this period, many of whom were fraudulently stripped of their assets before even arriving in America - and arrived in America in the early nineteenth century to be sold into bonded service.

What really astounded me in this book, and seems obvious now in retrospect is that so many slaves in America could actually pass for Whites. They were, of course, the product of many generations of interbreeding with their masters or white men. This was for the most part reluctant, but it meant that after a few generations some slaves looked as white as the masters they served - notices of runaway slaves often indicated that they could easily pass as white.

I think those who enjoy Regency history (although it is a later period being actually mid nineteenth century mostly) or those who enjoyed the Tichborne Claimant - a British court case involving a man who was proved to be a Charlatan, will enjoy reading this as well - if you haven't heard of the Tichborne claimant I recommend reading about it after this.

As a history of America this is extraordinary - it is a small part of the history, but I guarantee you will come away from it understanding an enormous amount more. It is also extremely well written. I found it a real page turner, and it kept me gripped to the last page - read it and be amazed.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Alternate Universe, July 2, 2005

By 

Charles R. Milbourne (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Lost German Slave Girl: The Extraordinary True Story Of Sally Miller And Her Fight For Freedom in Old New Orleans (Hardcover)

This is a great read.

Baily gives us a story worthy of a Hollywood blockbuster - a story about a young orphan German girl sold into slavery and the legal efforts made by New Orlean's German community to set her free. The story has many exciting twists and turns.

As good as the story is is Baily's account of Louisiana's case law concerning slaves and redemptioners (indentured whites). The law is familiar and strange. Familiar because we know the legal procedures; strange because the law we learn about treats people as property.

Highly recommended!