A Spring morning in New Orleans, 1843. In the Spanish Quarter, on a street lined with flop houses and gambling dens, Madame Carl recognises a face from her past. It is the face of a German girl who disappeared teenty-five years earlier, the daughter of her closest frienf. But the young woman is the property of a Frenchman who owns a nearby cabaret. She is a slave, with no memory of a 'white' past. And yet her resemblance to her mother is striking, and she bears two tell-tale birthmarks...
What had happened? Had a defenceless European orphan been callously and illegally enslaved, or was she an impostor? So began one of the most celebrated and sensational crusades of 19th Century America-the battle to free the lost German slave girl.
John Bailey, author of the multi-award winning The White Divers of Broome, has brought to life an incredible true story. The Lost German Slave Girl is a tour de force, a work of narrative non-fiction that is a fascinating exploration of slavery and its laws, a brilliant reconstruction of mid-19th Century New Orleans and a riveting court room drama. It is also a compelling portrait of a young woman in pursuit of freedom.
John Bailey's previous book The White Divers of Broome won the NSW Premier's Award for History and the WA Premire's Literary Award for Non-fiction. It ws also shortlisted for The Age Non-fiction Book of the Year, The Courier Mail Book of the Year and the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Non-fiction.