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Almost ten years ago I walked onto the property that was once Retreat Plantation and into the cemetery for the enslaved people and their descendants. There among marked and unmarked graves I first encountered Neptune Small. I had little idea then that he and many of the people he knew would come to be an integral part of my life. My initial intent was to learn about the lives of the enslaved people at Retreat, but Anna Matilda Page King proved irresistible . While reading her letters I have often felt as though I had stumbled into an empty house and begun pulling open drawers and looking under beds. I have come to know the Kings, and some of the people who lived and worked at Retreat, well enough to feel in a sense like part of the family. That first trip to Retreat and my encounter with Neptune Small led to hours spent reading the King family’s letters on microfilm at the library of Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia. That work was turned into a senior thesis under the guidance of Michele Gillespie, my teacher, mentor, and friend. I am a historian largely because of her passion and skill as a teacher. Catherine Clinton has remained interested in and supportive of my work for nearly ten years. It meant a great deal when I first met Catherine to be taken seriously as a researcher and writer. I hope to pass that welcoming into the fold on to my own students. When I was a graduate student at Clemson University it was William Steirer who pushed me to think clearly and argue convincingly. It was often a trial by fire, but he spurred me on to edit Anna King’s letters into a thesis. I am now a doctoral student in the Social Foundations of Education program at the University of Georgia. It has been my great fortune to meet and work with Ron Butchart, who has from the very beginning called me colleague and friend. Moreover, he has read parts of this manuscript and painstakingly commented on them. I have had few teachers of his quality and dedication, and his criticisms and suggestions have made this a much better book than it would otherwise have been. Daniel Bascelli at Spelman College has rescued this manuscript more than once. His computer skills and generosity are greatly appreciated . I thank Malcolm Call for his belief in the value of Anna King’s letters and for his patience while I completed the manuscript. Jennifer Comeau Reichlin and Jon Davies played important parts in bringing this book to completion. The Acknowledgments xiii staffsoftheSouthernHistoricalCollectionattheUniversityofNorthCarolina, Chapel Hill, and the Georgia Historical Society in Savannah have been continually helpful to a novice and then insistent researcher. This work would not have been possible without their generous assistance. Edwin R. MacKethan III has not only shared his time, family photographs, and other documents but has read and made corrections to portions of this book. Melinda Conner painstakingly copyedited the manuscript and graciously waited while I responded to her suggestions—most of which appear in these pages. She, too, has done much to improve my work and I am grateful. Any errors that remain are mine alone. Families come in different ways. We are born into one, marry into another, and choose to become members of others along the way. In all kinds I have been mightily blessed. One of my families has grown out of deep friendship and love. It began when my husband, Arturo Lindsay, met Jim Winchester, a fellow faculty member at Spelman College, at graduation. Through Jim we were introduced to a circle of friends who are sisters and brothers all. We have spent many hours eating good food, drinking good wine, and talking trash. Barbara Marston, Larry Slutsker, and their daughters, Emma and Sarah; Jim, Eve Lackritz, and their children, Sophia (my goddaughter) and Adrien; Mary Potter and Tim Craker; and Louis Ruprecht—scholar, writer, teacher, gardener, and baker—have all added more than they can know to my life and work. My friend and sister, Lisa Tuttle, artist and collaborator, has been vital to my development as a historian and to this project. We began a conversation seven years ago about my research on Anna King and her work as an artist, and we are still talking. Through my research and her visual art we created an installation work titled “Retreat: Palimpsest of a Georgia Sea Island Plantation.” Initially , we...

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