In these endnotes:
Cable refers to: George W. Cable, “Salome Müller, the White Slave,” in Strange True Stories of Louisiana, Charles Scribner’s, New York, 1890.
Deiler refers to: J. Hanno Deiler, “The System of Redemption in the State of Louisiana,” Louisiana Historical Quarterly, vol. 12, 1929.
Docket 1114 refers to: File of Miller v. Miller et al., Docket 1114, Supreme Court of Louisiana Collection, Earl K. Long Library, University of New Orleans. The judgment appears in (1849 La) 4 La An 354.
Docket 5623 refers to: File of Sally Miller v. Louis Belmonti and John Miller (called in warranty). Docket 5623, Supreme Court of Louisiana Collection, Earl K. Long Library, University of New Orleans. The judgment appears in (1845 La) 11 Rob. 339.
Miller’s pamphlet refers to: John F. Miller, A Refutation of the Slander and Falsehoods Contained in a Pamphlet Entitled Sally Miller, held in the Harvard University Library. It is also reproduced in Paul Finkelman (ed.), Free Blacks, Slaves, and Slaveowners in the Civil and Criminal Courts, series VI, vol. 2, Garland Publishing Inc., New York, 1988.
Upton’s pamphlet refers to: Sally Miller, a pamphlet held by the Williams Research Center, New Orleans, and the New York Public Library.
Upton new trial refers to: Sally Muller v. Louis Belmonti and John F. Miller, Notes for a rule on a new trial, held by the Williams Research Center, New Orleans, and the New York Public Library.
1 Howes v. Steamer Red Chief (1860 La) 15 La An 322-3.
2 11 Rob. 339.
3 Gentry v. McMinnis (1835 Ky) 3 Dana 382, 387-8.
4 Hervy v. Armstrong (1854 Ark) 15 Ark 162, 168.
5 The history of Deiler and Cable’s publications is found in Louis Voss, “Sally Mueller, the German Slave,” Louisiana Historical Quarterly, vol. 12, 1929, p. 447. Notes of evidence of the discovery of Mary appear in Docket 1114. See also Docket 5623. For reasons unclear to me, Cable called the woman who “discovered” Salomé Müller, Madame Karl, while all other sources, including the notes of the court proceedings, refer to her as Madame Carl. Her full name was Madame Carl Rouff.
6 Upton’s pamphlet, p. 4. Its author, Wheelock S. Upton—about whom a lot will be told as this book proceeds—published it anonymously in 1845.
7 Charles Mackay, Life and Liberty in America in 1857—8, Johnson Reprint Corporation, New York, 1971, pp. 317-18.
8 L. Maria Child, Patriarchal Institutions, American Anti-slavery Society, New York, 1860, pp. 25-8.
9 Bryan v. Walton (1864 Ga) 33 Ga 11, 24.
10 Annie Lee West Stahl, “The Free Negro in Ante-Bellum Louisiana,” Louisiana Historical Quarterly, vol. 25, 1942, p. 301.
11 Maria v. Surbaugh (1824 Va) 2 Rand. 228.
12 Johnson v. Johnson (1848 Ky) 8 B. Mon. 470.
13 Thomas R. R. Cobb, An Inquiry into the Law of Negro Slavery in the United States of America, with an Historical Sketch of Slavery, Negro University Press, New York, 1968 [1858], article 70.
14 Frazier v. Spear (1811 Ky) 2 Bibb 385, 386.
15 Bentley v. Cleaveland (1853 Ala) 22 Ala 814, 818.
16 Fable v. Brown (1835 SC) 2 Hill Eq. 378.
17 Fulton v. Shaw (1827 Va) 4 Randolph 597, 599.
18 Marbletown v. Kingston (1822 NY) 20 Johnson 1. It may surprise that a case concerning slavery was decided in New York as late as 1822. The explanation is that although slavery was abolished in the state in 1799, it was by a phased process, and some who were born before 1799 remained in servitude.
19 Mayho ν. Sears (1842 NC) 3 Iredell 224, 232.
20 Article 196 of the Civil Code of the State of Louisiana.
21 Friedrich Gerstäcker, “Nach Americka!,” quoted in Karl J. R. Arndt (ed.), “A Bavarian’s Journey to New Orleans in 1853-1854,” Louisiana Historical Quarterly, vol. 23, 1940, p. 485.
22 An alarmed King of Württemberg asked an official, Friedrich List, to report to him on why people wanted to leave his empire for America. List asked the immigrants and received no shortage of reasons: they were starving, work was scarce, land taxes were too high, rents were too high, and municipal officials were both arrogant and corrupt. Günter Motlmann (ed.), Aufbruch nach Amerika, Metzler, Stuttgart, 1989, pp. 181-6.
23 C. Edward Skeen, in “The Year Without a Summer,” Journal of the Early Republic, vol. 1,1981, p. 51, discussed this and other theories for the global chill. See also: Henry Stommel and Elizabeth Stommel, “The Year Without a Summer,” Scientific American, vol. 240, June 1979, p. 134; and Fred M. Bullard, Volcanoes of the Earth, University of Queensland Press, St. Lucia, 1977.
24 Quoted in Deiler, p. 438.
25 Marco H. D. van Leeuwen, “Surviving with a Little Help: The Importance of Charity to the Poor of Amsterdam,” Social History, vol. 18, 1993, pp.319, 329.
26 The account of this voyage is derived from Cable, pp. 151-2, and Deiler. Cable suggested that the name of the ship was the Captain Grone, but I believe he was mistaken. The confusion arises because Madame Hemm, in giving evidence, said that the name of the captain of her ship was Captain Grone.
27 Reproduced in Deiler, pp. 428–9.
28 The incident of people jumping overboard is mentioned by Louis Voss in “Sally Mueller, the German Slave,” Louisiana Historical Quarterly, vol. 12, 1929, p. 450. Eva Schuber gave evidence about nursing the children of Daniel Müller in Docket 5623. Cable, who interviewed Ms Thomas, wrote of the vial of water saving her father’s life (p. 152).
29 The lawyer was Wheelock S. Upton, who appeared in all the Sally Miller cases. His words are taken from the National Anti-Slavery Standard of July 31, 1845.
30 Upton’s pamphlet, p. 1; Cable, p. 156; Deiler, p. 440.
31 Upton’s pamphlet, p. 1; Deiler, p. 440; Madame Hemm’s evidence appears in Docket 5623.
32 The Louisiana Gazette of March 7,1818, refers to Krahnstover’s ship as the Tufrou Johanna, but this appears to be a misprint. See Deiler, p. 440.
33 Johannes Ulrich Buechler, Land and Sea Journeys of a Citizen of the Canton of St. Gall to North America and West Indies, quoted in an addenda in Louis Voss, “The System of Redemption in the State of Louisiana,” Louisiana Historical Quarterly, vol. 12, 1929, pp. 445—6.
34 Henry Bradshaw Fearon, Sketches of America, Longman, London, 1819, pp. 148-50.
35 Refer to the Civil Code of the State of Louisiana. In respect to the ability of a master to inflict punishment, a minor reform occurred in 1825 when the words “provided he does not make use of a whip” were added. See also Deiler, p. 435.
36 Quoted in Deiler, pp. 436—7.
37 Louisiana Gazette, March 14, 1818.
38 Acts Passed at the Second Session of the Third Legislature of the State of Louisiana, J.C. De St. Romes, State Printer, New Orleans, 1818.
39 Quoted in Eric L. McKitrick (ed.), Slavery Defended: The Views of the Old South, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1963, p. 118.
40 Originally, most of the refugees from Saint-Domingue fled to Spanish Cuba, but they were expelled when Napoleon invaded Spain and arrived in New Orleans soon after the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.
41 Quoted in Henry Bradshaw Fearon, Sketches of America, Longman, London, 1819, pp. 274-5.
42 Edward Sullivan, Rambles and Scrambles in North and South America, Richard Bentley, London, 1852, pp. 223-5.
43 Charles Sealsfield (Karl Anton Postl), The United States of North America as They Are, Johnson Reprint Corporation, New York, 1970 [1828], pp. 170—1. Postl was born in Moravia and arrived in New Orleans in 1823. Upon becoming a journalist, he adopted the persona of Charles Sealsfield, a native of Pennsylvania, and adopted American attitudes, which he then explained to readers in Germany, England, and America itself.
44 James Silk Buckingham, “The Slave States of America, London and Paris,” 1842, quoted in Annie Lee West Stahl, “The Free Negro in Ante-Bellum Louisiana,” Louisiana Historical Quarterly, vol. 25,1942, pp. 301,306.
45 A table showing the population of New Orleans from 1769 to 1860, broken down into various racial groups, appears in Caryn Cossé Bell, “The New American Racial Order,” The Louisiana Purchase Bicentennial Series in Louisiana History, vol. XV, University of Southwestern Louisiana, Lafayette, 2000, p. 18.
46 Section 40 of the Black Code.
47 Article 35 of the Civil Code; Wheelock S. Upton and Needier R. Jennings, The Civil Code of the State of Louisiana with Annotations, E. Johns & Co., New Orleans, 1838.
48 Mitchell v. Gregory (1809 Ky) 1 Bibb 449.
49 Jones v. Mason (1827 Va) 5 Randolph 577, 593.
50 Witherington v. Williams (1798 NC) Taylor NC 134.
51 John S. Kendall, “Shadow Over the City,” Louisiana Historical Quarterly, vol. 22, 1939, pp. 148, 154.
52 Thomas ν. Davis (1846 Ky) 7 B. Mon. 227.
53 Witherington v. Williams (1798 NC) Taylor NC 134.
54 Berry v. Hamilton (1868 Ky) 1 Bush 361.
55 Such a ceremony is described in Carter v. Buchannon (1847 Ga) 3 Ga 513, 514.
56 Arnold v. Arnold (1833 NC) 2 Dev. Eq. 467.
57 Banks Adm’r v. Marksberry (1823 Ky) 13 Ky (3 Litt) 275.
58 Nelson ν. Nelson (1849 NC) 6 Ired. Eq. 409.
59 Sheppards v. Turpin (1847 Va) 3 Grattan 373, 379.
60 Ewing v. Gist (1842 Ky) 2 B. Mon. 465. In another case, witnesses said that a slave named Mary wasn’t very saleable because she was too white: Munn v. Perkins (1843 Miss) 1 S. and M. 412, 415.
61 John S. Kendall, “Shadow Over the City,” Louisiana Historical Quarterly, vol. 22, 1939, p. 150.
62 Charles Sealsfield (Karl Anton Postl), The United States of North America as They Are, Johnson Reprint Corporation, New York, 1970 [1828], p. 175.
63 Thornton’s Case (1849 111) I11 I11 332.
64 Solomon Northup, Twelve Years a Slave, Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge, 1968 [1853], pp. 51-2.
65 Cable, p. 176; Miller’s pamphlet, p. 22; Docket 5623.
66 In the handful of days that the French ruled Louisiana in 1803 before transferring it to the United States, they attempted to amend the slave laws, but these efforts were ignored.
67 Julienne (f.w.c.) v. Touriac (1858 La) 13 La An 599.
Details of Miller’s life may be pieced together from the transcript of evidence in Docket 5623. Other details appear in the case of Miller v. His Creditors, Appeal Docket 5661, Supreme Court of Louisiana Collection, Earl K. Long Library, University of New Orleans. A partial history of Miller’s financial woes appears in the law report Harvey Beach v. Miller’s Testamentary Executors (1860 La) 15 La 601. See also helpful details in Glenn R. Conrad (ed.), A Dictionary of Louisiana Biography, University of Southwestern Louisiana, Lafayette, 1988; and Glenn R. Conrad, New Iberia: Essays on the Town and Its People, 2nd edn, University of Southwestern Louisiana, Lafayette, 1986.
68 Johnson v. Tompkins (1833) 13 Fed. Cas., 840, 843.
69 Miller’s pamphlet, pp. 3, 17. Miller’s italics appear in the original.
70 Miller’s pamphlet, p. 3.
71 Miller’s pamphlet, pp. 16—17.
72 Lelen appealed to the Supreme Court, but lost: Miller v. Lelen (1841 La) 19 La 331.
73 An excellent commentary on Louisiana’s economy (from which I derived much assistance) appears in Merl Reed, “Boom or Bust, Louisiana’s Economy during 1830,” Louisiana History, vol. 4, winter 1963, p. 35. A partial history of Miller’s financial woes, including his bankruptcy, appears in the law report Harvey Beach v. Miller’s Testamentary Executors (1860 La) 15 La 601.
74 Louisiana Courier, July 2, 1813.
75 Hudgins v. Wrights (1806 Va) 1 Hen. & M. 134, 140.
76 Daily Picayune, May 25, 1844; document entitled “In the Supreme Court John F. Miller Versus Sally Miller et al” held at the Williams Research Center, New Orleans, p. 29; Daily Tropic, June 30, 1845; Upton’s pamphlet, pp. 7—8; Miller’s pamphlet, p. 14.
77 Miller’s pamphlet, p. 20.
78 Docket 1114. Mrs. Canby, in her statement, claimed that Williams did return and received three hundred and fifty dollars for Bridget Wilson, less deductions for amounts owing, including the doctor’s and nurse’s fees. No other witness, including her son, mentioned this, and Wheelock S. Upton stated that “there is no evidence of his [Williams] ever demanded or received any money in addition to the one hundred dollars said to have been advanced …” Another indication that Mrs. Canby’s memory was faulty is that the document recording her purchase of Bridget makes no mention of Miller being paid. Upton’s pamphlet, pp. 9—10.
79 Article 182 of the Civil Code of the State of Louisiana. An argument admired in lawyerly circles said that since slaves didn’t have the right to contract, and marriage was a form of civil contract, it followed that slaves couldn’t marry. The Louisiana Supreme Court adopted this argument in 1819, saying that with the consent of their masters slaves may “contract, or connect” with each other, but such acts “cannot produce any civil effect, because slaves are deprived of all civil rights”: Girod v. Lewis (1819 La) 6 Martin 559.
80 Thomas R. R. Cobb, An Inquiry into the Law of Negro Slavery in the United States of America, with an Historical Sketch of Slavery, Negro University Press, New York, 1968 [1858], p. 246.
81 Howard v. Howard (1858 NC) 51 NC 237, 238-9.
82 State v. Samuel (1836 NC) 2 Dev. and Bat. 177.
83 Frances Anne Kemble, Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation in 1838-9, New York, 1961, p. 270, appearing in Peter W. Bardaglio, “Rape and the Law in the Old South,” Journal of Southern History, vol. 60, no. 4, November 1994, p. 758.
84 Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, Peden edn, 1955, p. 163.
85 Helen Tunnicliff Catterall, Judicial Cases Concerning American Slavery and the Negro, Negro University Press, New York, 1968 [1926].
86 George v. State (1859 Miss) 37 Miss 316.
87 Acts of the Legislature, 1806, article 7. Vail v. Bird (1851 La) 6 La An 223-4.
88 Miller pamphlet, p. 22.
89 Quoted in B.A. Botkin (ed.), Lay My Burden Down, a Folk History of Slavery, Phoenix Books, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1945, p. 120.
90 Quoted in John S. Kendall, “New Orleans Peculiar Institution,” Louisiana Historical Quarterly, vol. 23, 1940, pp. 874-5. Generally on the work of slaves on sugar plantations, see Leslie Howard Owens, This Species of Property, Slave Life and Culture in the Old South, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1977, pp. 21-2, and Solomon Northup, Twelve Years a Slave, Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge, 1968, pp. 159—62.
91 Docket 5623.
92 The story of Belmonti’s quarrelsome slave and his attempts to have Miller take her back come from an affidavit by Peter Curran reproduced in Upton new trial, p. 10.
93 Dred Scott v. Sandford (60 US) 19 Howard 393, 409.
94 Docket 5623.
95 Herbert Asbury, The French Quarter, Pocket Books, New York, 1966, p. 117.
96 Charles Gayarré,”The New Orleans Bench and Bar in 1823,” first appearing in Harpers Magazine in 1888, and was reproduced in Thomas M’Caleb (ed.), The Louisiana Book, R. F. Straughan, New Orleans, 1894, pp. 54, 63.
97 A. Oakey Hall, The Manhattaner in New Orleans, J. S. Redfield, New York, 1851, pp. 78-9.
98 Daily Picayune, May 25, 1844.
99 The clerk of courts in his notes had this name as Grandsteiner. But he wasn’t consistent—elsewhere it was Grandsteen or Grandsteever. It should be Krahstover, which is the name that appeared in the advertisements in the Louisiana Gazette of March 7-10, 1818. In fact Captain Bleeker was skipper of the Juffer Johanna, while Krahnstover was in overall command of the three vessels.
100 Miller’s pamphlet, p. 7.
101 Gary v. Stevenson (1858 Ark) 19 Ark 580, 586.
102 Daniel v. Guy (1857 Ark) 19 Ark 121, 127.
103 Daniel v. Guy (1861 Ark) 23 Ark 50, 52. The emphasis on negro foot is the court’s. See also Gaines v. Ann (Tex 1856) 17 Tex 211.
104 Phebe v. Quillin (1860 Ark) 21 Ark 490, 500.
105 As late as 1817 the Supreme Court of Louisiana held that American Indians could be held as slaves: Seville v. Chretien (1817 La) 5 Mart. La 275. See also Ulzere v. Poeyfarré (1820 La) 8 Mart. La 155.
106 A copy of the affidavit and the extract from the Register of Baptism appears in Docket 5623.
107 Miller’s pamphlet, p. 10.
108 Upton new trial. The italics are Upton’s.
109 Docket 5623.
110 Docket 5623.
111 Although most of the final addresses of counsel haven’t survived, a good idea of what they said can be gauged by the pamphlets the parties later wrote about the case, appeal papers, and reports in the press. The portion that is reproduced appears in Upton new trial.
112 Bryan v. Walton (1853 Ga) 14 Ga 185, 205.
113 Docket 5623.
114 Articles 557-61 of the Code of Practice.
115 Upton new trial.
116 Upton new trial.
117 Docket 5623 and Upton new trial.
118 Upton new trial.
119 State v. Mann (1829 NC) 2 Dev. 263, 267.
120 Mrs. Canby’s comment appears in Miller’s pamphlet, p. 22.
121 Much of the material on Martin comes from Henry A. Bullard, “A Discourse on the Life and Character of the Honorable François-Xavier Martin,” in Judith Kelleher Schafer and Warren M. Billings (eds.), The Louisiana Purchase Bicentennial Series in Louisiana History, vol. XIII, University of Southwestern Louisiana, Lafayette, 1997, pp. 691–707. See also: Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, New York, 1888; Glenn R. Conrad (ed.), A Dictionary of Louisiana Biography, University of Southwestern Louisiana, Lafayette, 1988; and Henry Rightor, Standard History of New Orleans, Louisiana, The Lewis Publishing Co., Chicago, 1900, p. 96.
122 Louisiana Law Journal, 1842, vol. 1, p. 157.
123 Adelle v. Beauregard (1810 La) 1 Mart. (O.S.) 183, 184.
124“Slavery,” wrote a Mississippi Appeals judge in 1818,”is condemned by reason and laws of nature” (Harry v. Decker & Hopkins [1818 Miss] Walk. Miss 36, 42). A judge of the Virginian Supreme Court in 1828 referred to “the spirit of the Laws of all civilized nations which favor liberty” (Isaac v. West’s Ex’r [1828 Va] 6 Randolph 652, 657). In the same year, a Missouri judge stated, “All men are by the law of nature free” and without some positive declaration of the state should be set at liberty (Marguerite v. Chouteau [1828 Mo] 2 Mo 71, 90).
125 Virginia was one of the first states to recant. In 1831 the Court of Appeals said that “all who have examined the earlier cases in our books, must admit, that our judges (from the purest motives, I am sure) did, infavorem libertatis, sometimes relax, rather too much, the rules of law” (Gregory v. Baugh [Va 1831] 2 Leigh 665, 680). In 1860 the Supreme Court of the state of Arkansas wrote, “The question of freedom should be determined like every other question made before the courts, solely upon its legal aspects, without partiality to an applicant for freedom because he may be defenseless, and a member of an inferior race” (Phebe v. Quillin [1860 Ark] 21 Ark 490, 500). In the same year the Supreme Court of North Carolina wrote, “the true principle of our law, in relation to the emancipation of slaves, is, that it permits, but does not favor it” (Myers v. Williams [1860 NC] 5 Jones Eq. 362, 367).
126 Marie Louise F.W.C. v. Marot (1835 La) 8 La (O.S.) 667, 669-70. There was a retrial and Josephine was eventually freed: Marie Louise F.W.C. v. Marot (1835 La) 9 La (O.S.) 295.
127 Mary v. Morris (1834 La) 7 La 135.
128 Henry A. Bullard, “A Discourse on the Life and Character of the Honorable François-Xavier Martin,” in Judith Kelleher Schafer and Warren M. Billings (eds.), The Louisiana Purchase Bicentennial Series in Louisiana History, vol. XIII, University of Southwestern Louisiana, Lafayette, 1997, p. 704.
129 Sally Miller v. Louis Belmonti (1845 La) 11 Rob. 339.
130 Sally Miller v. Louis Belmonti (1845 La) 11 Rob. 339, 343.
131 Quoted in Louis Voss, “Sally Mueller, the German Slave,” Louisiana Historical Quarterly, vol. 12, 1929, pp. 447, 459-60.
132 Reports of the celebrations for Sally Miller appear in the Daily Tropic, June 30, 1845, the National Anti-Slavery Standard, July 31, 1845, and the Jeffersonian Republic, June 24, 1845.
133 Müller v. Miller and Canby, general case 1403 (entry 121, location A1610136), the National Archives—Southwest Region (Fort Worth, TX).
134 Müller v. Miller and Canby, general case 1403 (entry 121, location A1610136), the National Archives—Southwest Region (Fort Worth, TX).
135 Miller’s pamphlet, p. 16.
136 Miller’s pamphlet, p. 19.
137 Miller’s pamphlet, p. 3.
138 Miller’s pamphlet, pp. 6, 12, 15-16.
139 Miller’s pamphlet, p. 18.
140 Miller’s pamphlet, p. 17.
141 Daily Picayune, June 22, 1845; Daily Tropic, June 23, 1845.
142 The depositions are contained in Müller v. Miller and Canby, general case 1403 (entry 121, location A1610136), the National Archives—Southwest Region (Fort Worth, TX).
143 Docket 1114.
144 The evidence of Brown and Coward appears in Müller v. Miller and Canby, general case 1403 (entry 121, location A1610136), the National Archives—Southwest Region (Fort Worth, TX).
145 Docket 1114.
146 Article 608 of the Code of Practice.
147 The sheriff’s notes are to be found on the papers associated with the subsequent appeal. See Docket 1114.
148 Docket 1114.
149 Docket 1114.
150 Miller v. Miller et al. (1849 La) 4 La An 354.
151 Sally Miller v. Louis Belmont (1845 La) 11 La 339.
152 Harvey Breach v. Miller’s Testamentary Executors (1860 La) 15 La An 601.
153 See Judith Kelleher Schafer and Warren M. Billings (eds.), The Louisiana Purchase Bicentennial Series in Louisiana History, vol. XIII, University of Southwestern Louisiana, Lafayette, 1997, pp. 416, 418, 460.
154 Monroe Bulletin, May 19, 1886.
155 Cable, p. 191; J. Hanno Deiler is quoted in Louis Voss, “Sally Mueller, the German Slave,” Louisiana Historical Quarterly, vol. 12, 1929, pp. 447, 460.
156 John S. Kendall, “Shadow Over the City,” Louisiana Historical Quarterly, vol. 22, 1939, pp. 148, 165. See also Carol Wilson, “Sally Muller, the White Slave,” Louisiana History, spring 1999, vol. XL, p. 133. Wilson concludes that Sally Miller was “more likely than not” the lost German girl, but it appears the author wasn’t aware of the material relating to the trial at the U.S. Circuit Court.