that would enable them to continue to view themselves as shunning arbitrary and despotic government, adhering to the rule of law, and respecting principles of liberty” (210). The notion that their proximity to the “problem” populations of Indians and slaves explains some Americans’ cultural attitudes is somewhat of a truism in United States history. Frontier dwellers frequently pointed out the hypocrisy of Bostonians who criticized expansionist violence on the Western frontier while devouring sentimental novels about noble savages from their comfortably already-conquered territory. Settler colonial studies would have offered Rosen’s analysis more depth on this and other topics, as well as some useful comparisons. The legal and diplomatic events she de- scribes in Florida underpin what many historians have come to call “settler co- lonialism,” but she never invokes either the phrase or the burgeoning literature on the subject. Scholars of settler colonialism will be interested in her account, however, especially alongside other legal histories documenting settler socie- ties in the Americas and beyond. Laurel Clark Shire The University of Western Ontario Michael A. Ross, The Great New Orleans Kidnapping Case: Race, Law, and Justice in the Reconstruction Era, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015. Pp. 309. $27.95 cloth (ISBN 978-0-19-977880-5). doi:10.1017/S0738248015000802 The Great New Orleans Kidnapping Case offers a rich narrative of a fascinat- ing case caught in the middle of Reconstruction politics and racial change. Drawing on the sensational newspaper history of the case, along with trial re- cords and other legal documents, Ross writes an exciting detective mystery of the kidnapping of a child named Mollie Digby in 1870 New Orleans. Amidst the story of the manhunt, and the subsequent trial of two Afro-Creole women, Ross expertly explains the particular racial and political context of Reconstruction New Orleans. New Orleans had a unique racial context due to its Afro-Creole community and their history of at least some acceptance among the white population of the city. In 1870, during radical Reconstruction, the city was attempting to create a biracial government and police force. The sensational nature of the case caught the attention of the country, but it was also an important example of the workings of a Reconstruction Republican biracial city government. Ross’ strengths lie in his narrative style and his ability to draw the reader in to the individual events and characters of the story while emphasizing their Book Reviews 239