Brothers Born of One Mother: British–Native American Relations in the Colonial Southeast

Acknowledgments

In the course of any research project, one incurs a significant number of debts. Although my thanks seem inadequate, I wish to acknowledge those who have helped me so substantially along the way. This work could not have been completed without the direction and support of Jack P. Greene. He gave me the freedom to pursue my own passions while also setting high standards for scholarship. I am also grateful for the guidance I received at the Johns Hopkins University from Michael Johnson,Toby Ditz,A. J. R. Russell-Wood, Ron Walters , and Phil Morgan. The members of the Colonial American History Seminar at Hopkins provided both penetrating critiques and collegial camaraderie, and I value the continued support that I receive from many of the former members , especially Ellen Holmes Pearson and Bradford Wood. Numerous institutions provided financial assistance for this project, without which it would have been impossible for me to complete it. Research and teaching fellowships along with a Southern History Research Grant from The Johns Hopkins University helped fund the initial research. Two unfunded fellowships from the Institute for Southern Studies at the University of South Carolina helped me to obtain temporary housing and library privileges at the university during my stay in Columbia. A Council on Faculty Research Grant from Eastern Illinois University and a Paul J. Franz Jr. and Class of 1968 Junior Faculty Fellowship from Lehigh University allowed me to complete the archival research and to conduct interviews in the Choctaw Nation. Many scholars have given generously of their time, reading portions of the manuscript.I am particularly grateful to James Merrell,James Saeger,and Amy Turner-Bushnell, who read the entire book. Many others read chapters, including Alan Gallay, Monica Najar, and John Pettegrew. Their insightful comments helped me to reconsider important ideas and reshape the argument in critical ways. Faculty colloquia at Eastern Illinois University and Lehigh University Acknowledgments x Acknowledgments supplied additional feedback, as did a women’s reading group at Eastern Illinois University (which included Sace Elder, Lynnea Magnuson, and Debra Reed). Anne Little and the anonymous readers for the University of Virginia Press provided a rigorous critique that helped me to hone key points. The Newberry Seminar in Early American History and the Omohundro Institute for Early American History and Culture provided a stimulating forum for me to present chapters and work out my ideas. Several scholars commented on portions of the project presented at conferences, including Nancy Shoemaker and Clara Sue Kidwell. The staff at the many repositories I visited gave of their time and expertise, helping me to find sources and generally making the task of completing research pleasant and fruitful. I wish to thank the North Carolina Department of History and Archives in Raleigh; the South Caroliniana Library at the University of South Carolina in Columbia; the South Carolina Historical Society in Charleston; the Georgia Department of Archives and History in Atlanta; the Georgia Historical Society in Savannah; and the Library of Congress.Very special thanks go to the South Carolina Department of Archives and History in Columbia. The wonderful staff put up with me for several months, pulling volume after volume of Council Journals and Miscellaneous Records. Their humor and flexibility were greatly appreciated. I especially wish to thank the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma for the generous hospitality that I received when I visited in 2004 and 2007. I am particularly grateful to Olin Williams, Cultural Preservation Specialist, who graciously introduced me to many people in the nation and to his nation’s history. Chief Greg Pyle was very welcoming as well. I also wish to acknowledge the invaluable assistance of Teresa Billy, Clive Billy, and Hannah Bryan of the Choctaw Language Department, as well as the committee working to produce a new Choctaw dictionary, in helping me with translations of eighteenth-century transcriptions of Choctaw words. I received very useful insights from talking with Nancy Southerland-Holmes of the Choctaw National Capitol Museum and Sandra Stroud of Chi Hullo Li. I also wish to thank Terry Cole, Barbara Grant, Tom Williams, and Burt Holt for generously sharing their time. I am sure that this work has been greatly improved because of their input. Any and all errors that remain are entirely my own. Brothers Born of One Mother ...