We Have Raised All of You: Motherhood in the South, 1750-1835

Acknowledgments

ix acknowledgments T here is something about the study of long-dead individuals that makes one all the more grateful for the aid of living women and men. My dissertation committee deserves special praise for helping midwife this often unwieldy project: Kathleen duval, who was a friend as much as a mentor and who caught every mixed metaphor i threw at her; Jacquelyn hall, whose unwavering enthusiasm for the project sustained me through periods of doubt; Theda Perdue, who cheerfully redirected my missteps; and heather williams and John wood Sweet, who not only offered advice but helped guide me through the shoals of my first year of graduate school. for their generous funding for various stages of research and writing, i want to thank the UNC Center for the Study of the american South, the UNC Medieval and early Modern Studies Program, the UNC Graduate School, the Newberry Consortium in american indian Studies at the Newberry Library, the virginia historical Society, the North Caroliniana Society, Mount holyoke College, and the Coordinating Council for women in history. This project also may not have been finished without timely escapes from Chapel hill; i want to thank duncan Riddell in Chicago, elisa wirkala in Seattle, and Jen and Joseph Strickland in austin for sharing their homes and cities while i explored both my sources and the world around me. historians without archivists are just wanderers in the wilderness. for their guidance and support in the archives, i want to thank Laura Clark Brown at the Southern historical Collection; Brent Burgin at the University of South Carolina at Lancaster; Graham duncan and Brian Cuthrell at the South Caroliniana Library; Mary Jo fairchild at the South Carolina historical Society; Katherine wilkins, Nelson Lankford, frances Pollard, and Lee Shepard at the virginia historical Society; Jim Grossman, Scott Stevens, John aubrey, danny Greene, and x acknowledgments Jenny Schwartzberg at the Newberry Library; and the staffs of the Library of virginia, the Swem Library Special Collections at the College of william and Mary, the North Carolina State archives, and the South Carolina department of archives and history. The women’s history community is remarkable for its collegiality and generosity . i sent out chapters like alms-seeking children, and i received invaluable advice and encouragement from emily Bingham, anya Jabour, Lynn Kennedy, Catherine Kerrison, and Thavolia Glymph. for their comments and suggestions on conference papers and presentations, i want to thank emily Bingham, fitz Brundage, James Taylor Carson, Thavolia Glymph, Laura Gowing, elizabeth McRae, deirdre Cooper owens, Susan Pennybacker, diana williams, the UNCduke working Group in feminism and history, the Triangle early american history Seminar, and the Triangle african american history Colloquium. The critiques of Kirsten fischer, Chris Grasso, and Karin wulf have also been particularly helpful. i’m very thankful to Kristen Tegtmeier oertel for introducing me to Rand dotson and the Louisiana State University Press; Rand has been an incomparable editor, and the press has turned the entire publishing process into something simple and enjoyable. The whole team deserves thanks, including Jo ann Kiser for her sharp copy-editing eyes. i also owe a great debt to Catherine Kerrison for her insightful and encouraging comments on the manuscript. This is far from a perfect book, but it’s a better book for her reading. in the post-dissertation era, Sally Kenney deserves thanks for her support and enthusiasm during the stages of revision, and i am especially grateful for my friends and mentors at the Bennington writing Seminars, who have reminded me that a single story connects history and literature: the one in which we humans try to understand the world. i also have more personal debts. i offer sincere gratitude to Joseph ellis, who did everything an undergraduate adviser could to get his students enthralled by early american history and whose writing provided me with a model for historyas -storytelling; Christina Snyder, who served as my big sister and virgil through the underworld of grad school; Crystal feimster, who shared her energy and her family with me; ayse erginer and dave Shaw, who demanded that i follow my dreams, however subversive, and whose office was filled with more mirth than seemed legal; Carolanne Selway, whose study of seventeenth-century english motherhood formed a perfect partner to my own research; felicity Turner, my guide to all things infanticide-related; Mikaëla adams, Jonathan hancock, xi acknowledgments and Julie Reed, my colleagues in american indian history...