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Acknowledgments I would like to acknowledge and thank the many persons who provided support that enabled me to complete the book. Joan Hoff believed in my project from the start, and stood behind me for ten years. Carole Pateman read my early work on patriarchy and the American founding and gave her encouragement. Sheila Skemp graciously shared her paper on Judith Sargent Murray and the Mississippi frontier, and alerted me of the existence of the Murray letters. Mark Kann and Patrick James both read the entire manuscript and offered helpful suggestions. Patrick James also generously served as a mentor for the past six years. I had several important discussions on race and history with Kairn Klieman, whom I would also like to thank for warm friendship and consistent support. My dear college friend Lisamichelle Davis read the manuscript carefully, and hosted me for a weekend to clarify points in the theory of racial patriarchy. She made very helpful editorial comments. Katrina Price diligently read and commented on the page proofs. I would like to express my gratitude to faculty and students at Texas Southern University who invited me into their community. Had I not had interactions with hundreds of students and faculty who openly shared their ideas and experiences, I would not have gained several insights that helped me analyze race in the early Republic. Two of my students, Yohannes Tsehai and Edna Johnson, deserve special mention for helping with some of the library research. I would also like to thank former president James Douglass, Dr. Gayla Thompson, and Dean Joseph Jones who graciously facilitated the reduction of my teaching load during the spring of 1999. An earlier version of my chapter on Mercy Warren appeared as an article entitled “Lamenting the Loss of a Woman-Centered Polity: Mercy Otis Warren’s Critique of the U.S. Constitution” in Southeastern Political Review (September 1998): 545–70. I thank Dr. George Cox at Southeastern Political Review for granting permission to reprint some of that material xi here. I would also like to thank the Massachusetts Historical Society for granting permission to quote from the Mercy Otis Warren Papers, the University of North Carolina Press for permission to quote from the AdamsJefferson Letters, and Harvard University Press for permission to quote from the Adams Family Correspondence. Several librarians also provided important assistance. Marcia Pankake , the American and English literature librarian from the University of Minnesota, helped me trace the phrase “fair sex” in English literature. Yvonne Schoffer, bibliographer and English librarian at the University of Wisconsin Memorial Library, secured the Judith Sargent Murray papers on microfiche for my research, and helped me access newspaper and magazine writings of the early national period. Richard Dickerson, the political science and history librarian at the University of Houston, provided assistance with citations via e-mail. Additionally, Gary Schroeder, computer systems manager at Texas Southern University, cheerfully took care of any technical problems I encountered. I would like to thank many persons who generously provided accommodations in their homes to support my writing during winter and summer breaks: my parents, Bette and Lee Schloesser, and friends Mary Hillstrom and Olaf Meding, of New Glarus, Wisconsin, and Ursula Spilger, of Cloudcroft, New Mexico. I would like to acknowledge and thank my editors at New York University Press: Stephen Magro, Jamison Stoltz, and Despina Papazoglou Gimbel. Stephen made an early offer on the manuscript with very little to go on. Jamison did the electronic editing, and Despina diligently oversaw the copy editing. I would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for The William and Mary Quarterly who offered critiques of an earlier version of my fair sex thesis. I owe a great debt of gratitude to Bette Schloesser, who generously supported me financially during my unpaid leave of absence from Texas Southern University during the spring of 2000. Lastly, I want to thank Dan Gleitman for redefining the role of husband and supporting me in every way. Dan, you’re the best. xii | Acknowledgments ...

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