A Coat of Many Colors: Religion and Society along the Cape Fear River of North Carolina

Acknowledgments

xi Acknowledgments During the years that I worked on this book, I became indebted to many people. At my home university, my colleagues in the Department of Philosophy and Religion and the Department of History were a frequent source of encouragement. The College of Arts and Sciences awarded me a research reassignment that proved useful, and the staffs of the Special Collections and the Interlibrary Loan Service at the William Randall Library always provided excellent assistance. Tony Janson, Melton McLaurin, and Diana Pasulka read the manuscript and made many important suggestions for which I am very appreciative. Likewise, participants at conferences at the University of Wales Swansea; the Karl-Franzens Universität, Graz, Austria; and the Roosevelt Study Center, Middelburg, the Netherlands , insightfully responded to my presentations on this material. I also value the cooperation of the members and clergy of the numerous groups profiled in this volume and thank them for allowing me access to their congregations’ archival materials. Similarly, I thank the Reverend Douglas Vaughan and the Session of First Presbyterian Church in Wilmington, North Carolina, for the invitation to deliver the Averette Lectures, during which discussion of some of this material occurred. Other friends, including Terry Reynolds, Beverly Tetterton, Joseph Sheppard, Ed Turberg, Janet Seapker, Adam Murray, and Bill and Betsy Simpson, gave me the benefit of their advice. Finally, my family—Walter and Eileen Conser, Janet, Megan and Jared, David and Debbie, and Emily—were always supportive as I labored on this project. I dedicate this book to Emily, my native Wilmingtonian, in celebration of her humor, warmth, and zest. North Carolina’s Cape Fear Region ...