Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(3)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

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!

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.

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!

I read this book as a selection of my book club and started it with only moderately high expectations. After all, wouldn't all the court deliberations begin to drag on as the case of the purported German immigrant was debated? However, I found the book absolutely fascinating; I'd rank it close to the top of the list of the sixty-something books we've read and discussed. The story of the immigration of the German families is heart-wrenching and highlights how even relatively minor circumstances can have life-altering consequences for a vulnerable population.
The tension only mounts as the court case begins. The book provides a perspective of US history through its detail and discussion of how slaves are treated and, even more startling, the motivations behind the law-making governing slaves and whether someone is considered white. I'd recommend it to all. John Bailey did a remarkable job of using the case of the "lost German slave girl" to provide a much larger view of Southern history.

John Bailey was doing general research into the minutiae of slave laws in the American South prior to the Civil War, and came across an unusual case that he decided to investigate fully, resulting in this highly interesting book. The story here involves the disappearance of a little German immigrant girl into the world of the redemptioner system (indentured servitude) in Louisiana, then her supposed discovery by anxious relatives 25 years later, working as a slave at a New Orleans saloon. The young woman allowed the relatives to institute a lengthy legal battle for her freedom, but her true identity and the real fate of the lost little girl turned out to be real surprises. Bailey makes use of his research into slave laws to show the relentless everyday prejudice of the slave system. We find that people with even a small fraction of non-white heritage were condemned by law to lives of slavery, poor white immigrants could be enslaved if their indentured servitude arrangements went wrong, the ownership rules for slaves and their children were heartless and constructed similarly to those for perishable foods, and it was nearly impossible for slaves of any heritage to gain their freedom in the eyes of the Southern courts. In addition to covering a very unique court case from Louisiana history, the true value of this book is a look at how a system that everyone knows was evil - slavery - was backed up by a body of obscure laws and regulations that were designed specifically to keep the slaves legally powerless and their masters powerful. [~doomsdayer520~]

What an intriguing story! I sped read through this book, as I could not put it down until I found out what happened to Sally Miller.
I enjoyed learning about the law of slavery, and reading the excerpts of judges opinion's in slave cases. The author reveals the moral contradictions inherent in slavery and the unfathomable bigotry that was the accepted norm. Besides telling a great story, this book illuminates the origins of the racial problems that still plague our society today.

In school they tell you that blacks were slaves. We think of dark skinned slaves as depicted in "Roots" Here is a story of how many whites became unwitting "indentured servants." The finer points of the laws governing slavery bring to life how some "black" slaves could be lighter skinned than their "white" masters. Details of the reality of slavery that are never taught in school. The author does a wonderful job of presenting all the evidence; trying to give the reader a blanced view of both sides of this case for free one "German Slave Girl."

We often think we have read and heard enough about the history of slavery in the United States. This book while telling a personal story which is very easy reading, in-fact takes a very unique and complex perspective and exposes so much more than the story of one slave. By reading this book I have gained a much better understanding of many American attitudes that I used to find puzzling before. This is a valuable work and can be very useful for anyone who wants to better understand the roots of American racism.

John Bailey was doing research on the laws which governed slavery when he came across the fascinating story of Sally Miller. He decided to write a book about her, using court transcripts and other historical documents. He begins with the story of German immigrants who were defrauded into believing that they had bought legitimate passage to America. The ship they were to sail on passes on to new owners who agree to take the Germans to America if they sign a paper making them indentured servants for the first few years that they are in the New World. The Muller family are struck with many tragedies and the children are eventually separated from their parents. Many years later, one of the Germans spots a young woman who is being kept as a slave, but whom she is sure is one of the Muller children. There ensue several trials which ultimately decide whether the young woman will remain a slave or will be given her freedom. The descriptions of early New Orleans are very interesting, as are the references to laws about slaves. The story has a lot of twists and turns and the reader is left with some doubt at the end of the book. The book starts rather slowly, but it becomes a very interesting story by the end.

This book reads like a novel. I think lawyers or law students will especially enjoy it because it contains a lot of information about slave laws and the way Southern courts decided these cases before the Civil War. I think readers will really enjoy the way the Bailey ends the book and the conclusion he reaches.