The Two Lives of Sally Miller: A Case of Mistaken Racial Identity in Antebellum New Orleans

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Description

In 1843, the Louisiana Supreme Court heard the case of a slave named Sally Miller, who claimed to have been born a free white person in Germany. Sally, a very light-skinned slave girl working in a New Orleans caf, may not have known she had a case were it not for a girl who recognized her as Salom Muller, with whom she had emigrated from Germany over twenty years in advance. Sally determined to sue for her freedom, and was once in the long run freed, regardless of strong evidence contrary to her claim.

In The Two Lives of Sally Miller, Carol Wilson explores this fascinating legal case and its reflection on broader questions about race, society, and law within the antebellum South. Why did a court system known for its extreme bias against African Americans lend a hand to free a woman who was once believed by many to be a black slave? Wilson explains that whilst the notion of white enslavement was once shocking, it was once easier for society to acknowledge that possibility than the alternative-an African slave who deceived whites and triumphed over the system.

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