ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I thank Robert L. Carter and David E. Vancil of the Rare Books and Special Collections Department of the Cunningham Memorial Library at Indiana State University for making the WPA manuscripts available. Under their supervision, the Indiana WPA files have been carefully organized and indexed, and a microfilm edition and a guide to the collection have been prepared (see Carter and Vancil 1992). A number of other libraries, historical societies, and genealogical societies assisted in locating and providing newspaper articles, obituaries, and photographs. Among those especially helpful in providing materials were the following:

Allen County Public Library

Clay County Genealogical Society

Elkhart County Historical Society

Evansville Museum of Arts and Science

Evansville-Vanderburgh County Public Library

Gary Public Library

Indiana State Library (Newspaper Section, Indiana Division)

Jay County Genealogy Society

Johnson County Historical Society

Library of Congress (Manuscript Division)

Madison-Jefferson County Public Library

Monroe County Historical Museum

Monroe County Library

Noblesville Southeastern Public Library

Ohio County Public Library

Randolph County Historical and Genealogical Society

Saint Joseph County Public Library

Scott County Public Library

Southern Indiana Genealogical Society

Tippecanoe County Historical Association

Vigo County Public Library

I also thank Father Anthony Spicuzza, pastor of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church in Brazil, Indiana, for ushering my family through a rite of passage while I was working on this book. Father Spicuzza, a family friend for years, claims that he is glad he does not have the talent to write books. Though he has the intellect, wit, compassion, and experience to write a shelf of books, he—like Socrates, Jesus, and the former slaves who told the stories in this book—deals more immediately with the fundamental reality of life.

I am appreciative, too, of the sabbatical I was awarded during the spring semester of 1998. Without a semester’s leave from teaching and administrative duties in the Department of English at Indiana State University, I could not have completed this book.