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

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Publisher’s Weekly (10/11/2004)
Who was Sally Miller: was she Salom Mller, 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 Mller, and unusual birthmarks exactly like he daughter Salom's, the Schubers claimed Sally as kin and set about trying to prove her identity as Salom 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. Agent, Catherine Drayton of Arthur Pine Associates. 50,000 first printing. (Jan.)

School Library Journal (03/01/2005)
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

Library Journal (12/15/2004)
In this expertly woven expos of a hotly disputed 19th-century court battle, Australian historian Bailey (The White Divers of Broome ) takes on the early American South. A series of highly contentious trials was held in the mid-1800s to determine whether Sally Miller, a New Orleans woman, was born a multiracial slave or was in fact a German immigrant trapped in bondage from childhood. The stuff of television miniseries, this sensational and emotional cause clbre of its time is revived into a fresh drama from the vantage point of the present. Bailey's revisiting clearly shows the legal bias and the transparent motivations while delivering a shocking new conclusion. He weaves a deft and captivating plot with astonishing detail culled from historical and archival records. Highly recommended. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 9/15/04.]--Elizabeth Morris, Illinois Fire Service Inst., Champaign

ISBN: 0871139219
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press  | Publication Date: January, 2005

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