Many thanks to Jessica Alexander, my editor at Peachtree, who believed in this project from the start and worked tirelessly to bring it to life with brilliant ideas and suggestions. Also to Marian Gordin and Vicky Holifield for their amazing copyediting, Mo Withee for her spectacular cover design, and all the folks at Peachtree who lent their expertise to this book.
To Carol Lee Lorenzo, for her longtime support and mentoring, and the other members of my critique group: Joy Pope-Alandete, Sandy Fry, Kit Robey and Kelly Williams.
Also to Tim Esaias, Leslie Davis Guccione, Anne Harris, Kristi Holl, and the faculty and staff of Seton Hill University’s WPF Program.
I especially want to thank Kathryn Grover for her book The Fugitives Gibraltar: Escaping Slaves and Abolitionism in New Bedford, Massachusettsand Patricia C. and Fredrick L. McKissack for Black Hands, White Sails: The Story of African-American Whalers. These important works inspired me and I returned to them again and again. Of course, any errors made in interpreting the history therein are my own.