Weekly hawk-eye and telegraph. [volume] (Burlington, Iowa) 1855-1857, 1855-07-04
THE WHITE SLAVE GIRL SALDaiE
MULLER.

| In March 1878, three ships arrived at New
Orleans, bringing several hundr German
einigrants from the province OF Alsacr ontha
lower Rhine. Among th. m were Daniel Mal-
Ter and his two dang tiers, Doroshea ard Sa-
| lone, whose mother hn,i died on the pIssnge.
! Soon after his arriva! Muller, tikrag with
| him lis two daughters, bath Young CHI l.irrn,
Went up The river to ttasapts p,rish 10
work on the plantation Of John T. Miller. y
| few weeks Inter, his relatives who had re-
| mainef nj New Orleans learned that he had
| died of the fever Of the country. They inn
| mcdiately sent for the two girls, but they had
! disappeared, and the relatives, notwitiIstard-
| ing repeated and perseYering inquiries aal
researches, could lind no trace of them.
They We're at length gwen up for dead. Dor
othea was never again heard of, nor WIS any
thing heard OF Saiomc from ISIS till 1913;
| in the summer Of that year, Madame Karl,
German woman who had Como over in the
same ship with the Muilers, was passing thro'
q street in New Orleans, and accidentally
| saw Salome in a wine shop, belonging to
Louis Belmonte, by whom she was held us
| slave. Madame Karl recognized her at once,
and carried her TO the house of another Ger
man woman, Mrs Shubert, who was Salome's
cousin and god-molher, ard no sooner set
eyes on her than, without having any intima-
ton that the discovery hid previously been
made, she unhcsitatingy exclaimed, s.My
/ God! here IS the long lost Salome Muller
The Law Reporter says that among the
| witnesses who appeared in court, was the
midwife who had assisted at the birth OF Sa-
| lone. Slie testified to the existence of Ger
tain peculiar marks upon the body of the
child, which. were found, exactly as descrih-
| cd by the surgeons, who were appointed by
| The court to make an examination for the
purpose. There were no traces of African
descent in any feature of tie face of Salome.
She hid long, straight black hair, hazel eyes,
thin lips and n Roman nose. The complex
ion of her face and neck was as dark rs that
of the darkest brunette. Ii appears, howey
er, that, during the twenty-five years of her
srvitude, she had been exposed to the SUMS
rays in the hot climate of Louisiana, with
head ar neck unsheltcred, rs is the custom
Of the female slaves, laboring in the cotton
or the sugar fields. The parts of her person
which had been shielded from the sun were
comparatively white. Belmontc, the pre-.
tended owner of the girl, had obtained pos
session of her by an act Of sale from John T.
Miller, the planter in whose service Salome's
father had died. This Miller was a man Of
consideration and substance, owning largo
sugar estates, and bearing high rcpu at'on
for honor ana honesty, and induig Mt treat
ment of his slaves. 1t WAS testified on the
trial that he had said to I;clmonte, u few
weeks after the sale of Salome, s:that she
was white, an had as mach right to her free
dom as amy one, and was to be retained in
slavery By care anil kind treatm Mt"
The broker who had negotiated the sale to
Belmonte, in 1888, testified in coart that he
then thonghI. and still thought that the girl
was white. The case WIS deliberately argu-
ed ON both sid $, but was at length decided
in favor of the girl, by the Supreme Court
declaring that 'sshe was white, and therefore
unlawfully held in boniage."