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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.… (más)
For nonfiction this is quite the page turner. The author I includes just enough background along with the story to keep the account flowing. An amazing story of a slave girl because she appears white and is recognized as a long lost relative makes a legal claim to freedom with the help of the German community in New Orleans. ( )
The author, John Bailey who is a lawyer, started out writing a book on the legalities of slavery in the Southern states running up to the Civil War, and in the course of his research came across the story of the lost German slave girl. That historical woman took over his imagination and his book and this is the result. It's a fascinating and bittersweet story, and has much of the writer's research results all through it. No one could do that research or read this book and ever again claim that slaves had any legal rightss, any dignity, or even humanity under Southern slavery, where slaveowners were protected to the nth. Many a twist and turn in this narrative. ( )
This was quite the story with many twists and turns. Learned a lot about laws regarding slavery, which for the most part was interesting although at times it did make the story drag. I was impressed when I read the author was a lawyer. He did a great job of breaking down what was pertinent to the average reader or lay person and making that information easy to understand as well. Recommended for those looking for a different take on a story of slavery. ( )
OMG! I just peeled my eyeballs from the last pages of this exceedingly dry, boring book. Shoot! Had to read it for reading group. I don't think I ever gave a book a one rating. But this deserved it. No doubt about it. The story didn't interest me. I think it was partly due to the author's style. I was even rooting for the slaveholders at one point just to make the story a bit more interesting. Let's not go here again! ( )
Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
The elevation of the white race, and the happiness of the slave, vitally depend upon maintaining the ascendancy of one and the submission of the other --Chief Justice Watkins of the Arkansas Supreme Court, 1854
Have you ever been in New Orleans? If not you better go; It's a nation of a queer place; day and night a show! Frenchman, Spaniards, West Indians, Creoles, Mustees, Yankees, Kentuckians, Tennseeeeans, lawyers and trustees. Clergymen, priests, friars, nuns, women of all stains; Negroes in purple and fine linen, and slaves in rags and chains, White men with black wives, et vice-versa too. A progeny of all colors-- an infernal motley crew! --James R. Creecy, 1829
Well, I have consulted my pillow on that question, and after all I believe I was wrong. --Judge Bullard on Judge Martin
Dedicatoria
Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
To Camryn
Primeras palabras
Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
This much we know: on a bright, spring morning in 1843, Madame Carl Rouff left her timber-framed house in Layfayette to travel across New Orleans to visit a friend who lived in the Faubourg Marigny.
Citas
Últimas palabras
Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
This is who Sally Miller was. She was Bridget Wilson, the slave.
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.
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