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The lost German slave girl : the extraordinary true story of Sally Miller and her fight for freedom in old New Orleans

Author

Bailey, John, 1944 December 15-

Title

The lost German slave girl : the extraordinary true story of Sally Miller and her fight for freedom in old New Orleans / John Bailey.

Format

Book

Edition

1st American ed.

Published

New York : Atlantic Monthly Press, [2005]

Description

xiii, 268 p. ; 24 cm.

Notes

"First published in 2003 in Australia by Pan Macmillan Australia Pty Limited, Sydney, Australia"--T.p. verso. Includes bibliographical references (p. 258-268).

Summary

Louisiana, 1843: a German immigrant thinks she recognizes a young slave girl as the long-lost daughter of her German friend, but the girl has no memory of such a past, and her owner refuses to free her. In novelistic detail, historian John Bailey reconstructs the exotic sights, sounds, and smells of mid-nineteenth-century New Orleans, an "infernal motley crew" of cotton kings, decadent river workers, immigrants, and slaves. The dramatic trial offers an eye into the fascinating laws and customs surrounding slavery, immigration, and racial mixing, pitting a humble community of German immigrants against a hardened capitalist, as respected for his wealth and power as he is feared and distrusted, and his attorney, one of the brashest and most flamboyant lawyers of his time.

Subject headings

Müller, Salomé, approximately 1809- Müller, Salomé, approximately 1809---Trials, litigation, etc. Enslaved persons--Louisiana--New Orleans--Biography. Women, White--Louisiana--New Orleans--Biography. German Americans--Louisiana--New Orleans--Biography. Trials--Louisiana--New Orleans. Enslaved persons--Emancipation--Louisiana--New Orleans. Slavery--Social aspects--Louisiana--New Orleans--History--19th century. New Orleans (La.)--Race relations. New Orleans (La.)--Biography.

ISBN

0871139219