Bleeding Borders: Race, Gender, and Violence in Pre-Civil War Kansas

Acknowledgments

ix Acknowledgments Many people have guided me on my path from Kansas to Iowa, New York, Texas, and, finally, Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi. I must first thank Kathryn Kish Sklar and Tom Dublin for their initial encouragement of my foray into Kansas women’s history as a master’s student at Binghamton University. Graduate seminars at the University of Texas at Austin with Neil Foley, Gunther Peck, Shelley Fisher Fishkin, and Robin Kilson helped refine the ideas formulated at Binghamton into a doctoral dissertation enriched by their expertise in the history of race and gender relations in the nineteenth century. My graduate student colleagues in Austin, particularly Saheed Adejumobi, Luis Alvarez, William Barnett, Matt Childs, Leilah Danielson, Eric Meeks, Steve Salm, Joanna Swanger, Patrick Walsh, and Jackie Woodfork, helped foster a learning environment that encouraged a healthy and selfless exchange of ideas and nurtured an ideal of scholarship that reminded me that without political commitment, scholarship means nothing. Antonia Castañeda and Daniel Usner read significant portions of this study and provided constructive criticism that refined my thinking about race in the United States and Native Americans’ place in that analysis. I must also thank John R. McKivigan and Stanley Harrold, coeditors of the anthology Antislavery Violence, for critiquing an article that would begin to explore some of the gendered themes of Bleeding Kansas that I expand on in chapters 3 and 4 of this work. I also received valuable criticism from Michael Morrison and from the anonymous readers for Louisiana State University Press; their suggestions surely improved the book. Elizabeth Leonard graciously and carefully reviewed the manuscript, and her ideas helped me fill some important holes. My deepest thanks goes to my advisor and friend, James Sidbury, who willingly and tirelessly supported me x acknowledgments as I jumped through the numerous hoops necessary to achieve the doctoral degree, revise a dissertation, and acquire a book contract. Without his acute analytical eye and brilliant writing ability, this project and its author would have suffered greatly. Finally, I owe a debt of gratitude to the series editor, Michael Parrish, who offered unflagging support and provided vital (and often obscure) citations for my consideration, and Rand Dotson, who saw promise in this project from the beginning and never lost faith in it or me. Several archivists at the Kansas State Historical Society in Topeka also deserve recognition. Jason Wesco, Linda Lichter, and Marian Bond all went out of their way to find sources that enriched my research, and they continued to find relevant materials after I returned to Texas and Mississippi . Virgil Dean, editor of Kansas History, directed me to some important sources and commented on several versions of chapters 2 and 4. The reference librarians and archivists at the Snyder Special Collections at the Miller Nichols Library, University of Missouri–Kansas City, and the Kansas City and Washington, D.C., branches of the National Archives and Records Administration readily shared their talents with me and uncovered several rare manuscripts. The librarians at Millsaps College cheerfully granted numerous interlibrary loan requests that enabled me to minimize my travel to the above archives. I must also thank the Graduate School at the University of Texas at Austin for granting me a University Fellowship during my final year of dissertation research; the Hearin Foundation for providing financial support during the summer months, which enabled me to revise the dissertation into a book; and the dean’s office at Millsaps College for granting me a teaching sabbatical and faculty development money to complete the project. Finally, I want to convey a profound sense of gratitude for my friends and family, who provided the love and encouragement that helped me complete this project. Susanna Holm, Robin Meyerhoff, Carol Faulkner, and Michelle Kuhl in Binghamton and Scott Perry, Jennifer Thornburrow, and Doug Wootten in Austin shared laughs, tears, and beers with me as I moved from coast to “coast” and chapter to chapter. My Cornell College friends sustained me with their love and encouragement from the beginning of my academic career: Brent Boyd, David Knutson, and, especially , Currie Augustine Gasche, Debbie Sieck, Stacey Fishell Evans, and Jillian Ranney Knutson. Friends in Kansas City and Jackson have consistently provided support throughout each stage of this project. Mark Brentano , Beth Jennings McNeill, Marty Wall, Starr Terrell, Tamlah Williams, xi acknowledgments and Mark, Diana, and Michaela Tarwater welcomed me back to Kansas each time I returned to...