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

Reviewed By Jennie Sondakh

In the book, The Two Lives of Sally Miller: A Case of Mistaken Identity in Antebellum New Orleans, it tells the story about two different girls mistaken to be one. This book describes the how certain races were looked upon in Antebellum and conveys a clear message about race and slavery.

This book is about and girl named Sally Miller, who grow up in slavery, and another girl named Salome Muller, who went missing after traveling from Germany. Sally Miller, when she was very young, was bought into slavery. She served for her first Master, John Miller, but he soon ran into financial issues and sold her to a Mr. Louis Belmonti. In the meanwhile, of serving Belmonti, Sally got pregnant. This stirred up some curiosity in town about who the father was. Many simply accused Belmonti. As she continued to work there a lady, by the name Eve Schuber, recognized her, but she recognized Sally as Salome Muller. Salome was a little German girl, that went missing after having traveled to America with her family years ago. Schuber was a close family friend of Salome. Sally had no recollection of that memory, but they reasoned at the fact that she was probably to young to remember.

Once Sally discovered this she realized then that she was under illegal enslavement because at the time only those of African American decent, blacks, were slave. Eve Schuber convinced Sally to fill a lawsuit against her current and former owners for illegal enslavement. She had valuable evidence from the testimony of the friend’s of Salome Muller. They marked the history of her family from when they left for American. The supporters of Sally was able to identify prominent birthmarks on her body.

The case opened in June 25, 1844. In the first trial, the judge residing, Judge Buchanan, sided with the defendant John Miller and Louis Belmonti. This was on the grounds of the age of the plaintiff (Sally Miller) and the age of the lost German girl did not coinciding, the testimony of Sally giving an account of her origins being different from the story told by the German witnesses, and Sally not having a German accent or appearance. Although the judge sided with the defendants, he made a brief comment that made people confused on what ground he stood on. It seemed that he had some inkling that Sally Miller and Salome Muller were the same person, but he did not want to ruin his reputation by going against two prominent white businessmen.

Sally Miller and her lawyer Upton decided to take this to the Louisiana Supreme Court. Upton wanted to present to the court new viable evidence that could prove Sally’s case. He found multiple witnesses that could say that Sally’s owners knew she was white. Upton also made a comment that if she was in fact not Salome Muller, the real Salome Muller would have come to court and fix the whole confusion considering the fact of the case’s publicity. He also made points on the fact that Sally Miller had no black appearance and had a white nature. With these points, the Supreme Court ruled and granted Sally Miller a free women. The book resonates on the fact that all in one life time Sally Miller was black and then white.

“Sally Miller claimed that she had been transformed into a black person because John Miller said she was black; she then became white because the Louisiana Supreme Court decide she was white.”

This book also touches on white slavery and how that was common amongst many mulattos. The reader will understand that sometimes it’s not just about race, but class played a big part in slavery. A poor white child would very often be kidnapped and sold into slavery, and raised to be thought as a black slave. Many would simply mistake him as a mulatto. For rich families, it was different. They were in the safe zone because people would be able to clearly make a distinction that they were not slaves. High class people had money, power, land, and literacy. The impoverished had nothing and was illiterate so people could not differentiate them with the slaves.

This book brought much insight on the status of people back in that time period. It gave a sense of each situation that came out of slavery. It also shows how corrupted people were to do such acts. Although it was not common, white slavery occurred frequent enough. Legislature and scientist tried to figure out way to determine what race an individual was, but failed. New Orleans exceedingly consisted on mulattos and various mixes making it very difficult to distinguish one from the other. This made slavery very unjustified, not that slavery is justified to begin with.

In the end this all turned out to be a case of mistaken identity. It was discovered to be that Sally Miller and Salome Muller, in fact, were two different people. But the whole situation shows the detail and personal story of how slavery was in Antebellum New Orleans. The case of Sally Miller or Salome Muller and their mistaken identity, was what started the threat of both the Louisiana legal system and the white southerners’ notion of race.