Paper Assignment for

The Great New Orleans Kidnapping Case: Race, Law, and Justice in the Reconstruction Era

In this class we have operated from the premise that trials that become famous at the time when they
occurr can tell us a lot about the society in which they took place. Your assignment is to write a 7-9 page
paper in which you assess why the Digby Case garnered so much attention and what that tells us about
Reconstruction Era America. Please note that you need not (and should not) provide a restatement of the
facts (you can assume that the person reading your paper has read the book). Please do make clear that
you understand how the historical context affected what transpired the courtroom.

In making your argument, your paper should also include answers to 6 of the following 10 questions
(although not necessarily in this order)(please note that everyone must answer the final question and
choose 5 others to answer as well):

1) Who were the Afro-Creoles and what roles did they play in New Orleans during the Civil War
and Reconstruction?
2) What do Detective Jourdain’s views and actions tell us about Afro-Creole culture and identity?
3) Who was Governor Warmoth and what was his significance in the story? Why was the resolution
of the case in general, and the performance of the police force in particular, so important to him?
4) Why did so many white residents of New Orleans perceive an interracial police force to be
threatening?
5) What was the general viewpoint of the New Orleans newspaper the Daily Picayune? More
generally what role did the “white-controlled press” play in shaping public perception of the trial?
6) While most of the tactics used by the Metropolitan Police Department were legal at the time,
were they ethical?
7) What was the significance of Voodoo and spiritual mediums to the investigation, and what does
this reveal about the culture of New Orleans and the United States more generally?
8) To what extent did the public’s expectations of women’s behavior affect the investigation and
trial? Did New Orleanians consider the defendants and Minnie Green to be “respectable ladies”?
9) Who was Ellen Follin, how did her past (hint: profession and marriage) figure in the trial? Was
Prosecutor Dalsheimer’s attempt to portray her as “immoral” an effective strategy for the
prosecution?
10) Read the instructions the trial judge gave to the jury (pp. 203-204). Do you think the jury
followed the judge’s instructions in reaching their verdict? Or was this a case of jury
nullification?
11) Ross writes that the outcome of the trial “suggests that in 1870 in New Orleans, Reconstruction
remained a moment of possibility.” (p. 233) What does he mean by this?
12) How did the relationship between the Afro-creoles and the white population change after the
trial?
13) In the book’s afterword, Ross reveals that the descendants of Ellen Follin knew nothing about the
case until they stumbled across it while doing family genealogical research? Why was this?

*13) Did the jury reached the correct verdict in the trial?
Please try to integrate your answers to these questions smoothly into your larger argument. In
your conclusion, be sure to return to your thesis about what this trial tells us about
Reconstruction Era America. Please write your paper using your own words, although you can
and should quote from the book to illustrate your point. When using a quote, please provide a
footnote citing the specific page number. NEVER simply reword sentences from the text (or
Wikipedia and other online sources) and present them as your own. Those sentences are easily
spotted and they will hurt your grade (or worse). Please check your paper for grammar,
spelling, and typos. The paper is due in class, on Thursday, October 22. Late papers will
receive ½ grade off for each day they are late.