The Lost German Slave Girl: The Extraordinary True Story of the Slave Sally Miller and Her Fight for Freedom in Old New Orleans

by John Bailey

Book Overview

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.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0871139219
• ISBN13: 9780871139214
• Release Date: December 2004
• Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.31 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Alternate Universe

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!

Unique Look at Everyday Slavery

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~]

Absolutely fascinating!

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.

fascinating historical fact with some necessary fictional ex

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!