| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 94.3

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to JAH online. About 244 words from this article are provided below; about 356 words remain.

If you are a individual member of the Organization of American Historians, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time.
If you are not a member of the Organization of American Historians, you can:: • Join the OAH and receive many member benefits including print and electronic issues of the Journal of American History.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two-hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the Journal of American History (86.1-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the Journal of American History.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 94.3 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

The Two Lives of Sally Miller: A Case of Mistaken Racial Identity in Antebellum New Orleans. By Carol Wilson. (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2007. xii, 158 pp. Cloth, $65.00, ISBN 978-0-8135-4057-3. Paper, $21.95, ISBN 978-0-8135-4058-0.)

The Two Lives of Sally Miller is a straightforward, well-crafted reconstruction of Sally Miller's story. Miller was a slave who sued for freedom in 1844. Her lawsuit had an uncommon, though not unheard-of, premise—that she was actually white. Miller argued that she had been wrongfully enslaved a quarter of century earlier at the age of three. She said her real name was Salomé Muller and that she had immigrated with her family to Louisiana from Germany in 1818. The hardships of the voyage and acclimation to a new environment claimed the lives of all but her sister. John Miller, an ambitious entrepreneur, "redeemed" Salomé, a practice akin to indentured servitude, whereby immigrants were contracted to work for whomever paid their travel debts. Sally Miller accused John Miller of passing her off as an extremely light skinned Negro, eventually selling her to another man. Even though physically she was white in every respect, John Miller's claim was especially plausible in New Orleans where racial identity was exceptionally fluid. Sally Miller's claims were hotly debated both in and out of court, a debate that continued long after the trial's conclusion. Carol Wilson's conclusions regarding Miller's true identity (I will not spoil the ending here) are persuasive.

. . .

There are about 356 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.