Almost Free: A Story about Family and Race in Antebellum Virginia

Acknowledgments

139 acnowledgments acknowledgments sections, like Samuel Johnson’s petitions to the Virginia legislature, tend to be formulaic. But I mean what I say as sincerely as he did. It really is a great pleasure to thank the many people who helped make this book. I will start with my parents, who first thought the story of Samuel Johnson was worth telling.To do so, I had to gather as much information on Johnson and his time and place as I could, a process I began in 2001 with the support of a faculty research grant from Hobart and William Smith Colleges. My colleagues there, especially Dan Singal, responded to my early thoughts on Johnson’s story, and I am grateful for their encouragement. Over the next decade, I received wonderful help from many people. Thank you to all those at the Afro-American Historical Association of Fauquier County, especially Karen Hughes White, who answered some crucial questions that arose as the manuscript neared completion. Jane Butler, also of the aaha, graciously helped me gather information on Warrenton’s free black residents and sent photocopies of useful documents. In the courthouse at Fauquier County, the records room staff delivered and copied some crucial records during my 2001 research trip, and later, deputy clerks Phyllis Scott and Kathy Brown helped tie up some loose ends. Scott, in particular, went beyond the call of duty on an ultimately fruitless search through the clerk’s loose papers. On a final trip to Warrenton in the summer of 2011, I was lucky to meet with Frances Allshouse, director of the Fauquier Historical Society, who shared many useful resources. I also want to thank 140 acknowledgments those who provided (free) lodging and good companionship on my research trips: Blair Pogue and Dwight Zscheile in Fauquier and Barbara Smith in Richmond. For helping to track down information on jubilee singing, I am grateful to my San Francisco State colleague Dean Suzuki, who also took a listen and helped me understand what I was hearing. Paul Ellison and Lee Hildebrand also aided in my search for information on the Elkins-Payne Jubilee Singers. Crucial research assistance came from Michael Caires, who did some tedious but important work very well, the fruits of which appear in chapter 4. Chris Kolbe of the Library of Virginia checked some details for me and helped me obtain permission to use images from the library ’s collection. Thank you, Chris. I wrote this book on and off over many years. When the project was on, it was in large measure thanks to two fulltime , one-semester leaves from teaching at San Francisco State University—a Presidential Award in the fall of 2006 and a sabbatical leave in the fall of 2010. Thank you, President Corrigan, for supporting scholarship even in the midst of draconian budget cuts. An advance from the University of Georgia Press allowed me to take a partial leave from teaching in the spring of 200, which helped me to get some momentum going again after one of the off periods. I shared the work in progress with a number of people, all of whom provided helpful feedback. Thanks to Melvin Ely, Joshua Rothman, and T. Stephen Whitman, who commented on papers that I delivered at professional conferences, and to Ellen Eslinger, who generously shared her paper from one of those conferences. In later communications, Mel prodded me to rethink the use of the term “white negroes”; I am deeply grateful to him. Colleagues and graduate students at San Francisco State offered their usual sharp criticism and encouragement in a colloquium discussion of the first chapter of this book, as did Manisha Sinha in her comments on that early partial draft. I feel especially thankful for the acknowledgments 141 efforts and insights of those who read the complete manuscript. My mother-in-law, Doris Wolf, and my San Francisco State colleagues Dawn Mabalon and Sarah Curtis provided comments that helped sharpen the manuscript and improve its readability. Sarah, in particular, saved me from a number of illogical statements . On behalf of the University of Georgia Press, Douglas Egerton and Richard Newman read a full draft and gave me excellent suggestions, most of which I have silently and shamelessly passed off as my own insights and knowledge.Thanks, guys! Even after all that feedback, a number of kinks remained.Thanks to my mom and dad and to...