In the early days of this project, remarkably generous members of the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society, particularly the Jean Sampson Scott Greater New York and Central California chapters of the organization, showed me the family-history ropes with patience and wisdom. I especially thank Dr. Stanton Biddle, Doris Burbridge, Denise Lancaster-Young, Andrea Butler Ramsey, Alene Jackson Smith, Adeline Jackson Tucker, and Sharon Wilkins for their many kindnesses.
I owe a debt of gratitude to the scores of genealogists, social scientists, and scientists who took time to speak with me, many with the promise of anonymity. I thank them all for their generosity, including Jane Aldrich, Blaine Bettinger, Michael Blakey, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Alan Goodman, Robert L. Hall, William Holland, Fatimah Jackson, Rick A. Kittles, Beaula McCalla, Joseph Opala, Gina Paige, Warren Perry, Chandler Saint, Gregory Simpkins, Linda D. Strausbaugh, Arthur Torrington, CBE, and Isaiah Washington. My appreciation also goes to the descendants of Venture and Margaret Smith, especially the late Coralynne Henry Jackson and Florence Warmsley, who generously shared their thoughts about their family with me.
Audiences at the Bates College, the Brocher Foundation, Brown University, City University of New York–Graduate Center, Columbia University, Cornell University, Duke University, the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, MIT, the New York Institute of the Humanities, New York University, Princeton University, Rensselaer Polytechnic, Rutgers University, the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Temple University, Yale University, the University of California at Los Angeles, the University of California at Santa Cruz, the University of Michigan, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Toronto offered valued feedback at critical states of the project’s evolution.
Stephanie Alvarado, Mary Barr, Felicia Bevel, Christina Ciocca, Milo Inglehart, Tamika Jackson, Julia Mendoza, Thalia Sutton, and Shondrea Thornton ably assisted me with research. Thank you Ifeoma Ajunwa, Althea Anderson, Cecilia Cardenas-Navia, Sean Greene, Stephanie Greenlea, Tisha Hooks, Nicole Ivy, James Jones, Elyakim Kislev, Warren McKinney, Ronna Popkin, James T. Roane, Joan H. Robinson, Daniel Royles, Anthony Ureña, Emily Vasquez, and Devon Wade for helping me to sharpen my thinking as the book was in progress.
Generous colleagues read or discussed the manuscript at various stages and gave me valuable feedback, including Elizabeth Alexander, Edward Ball, Ruha Benjamin, Catherine Bliss, danah boyd, Adele Clarke, Kate Crawford, Steven Epstein, Joan Fujimura, Duana Fullwiley, Paul Gilroy, Jennifer Hamilton, Ange-Marie Hancock, Saidiya Hartman, Stefan Helmreich, Marianne Hirsch, Jonathan Holloway, Gerald Jaynes, Kellie Jones, Randall Kennedy, Shamus Khan, Jennifer Lena, Delores Y. Nelson, Tamara Nopper, Anne Pollock, Ramya Rajangopalan, Dorothy Roberts, Salamishah Tillet, Kendall Thomas, Keith Wailoo, Vron Ware, Patricia J. Williams, Audra Wolfe, and Eviatar Zerubavel. My incredible writing group, which at times spanned four time zones, always helped me to see what the project could be; exuberant thanks to Catherine Lee, Ann Morning, and Wendy Roth. Jenny Reardon is one of my most valued interlocutors, and our regular conversations always left me smarter.
The Renaissance man, Thomas Sayers Ellis, took my author’s photo and I thank him for sharing the gift of his magical eye.
I am grateful to my agent, Deirdre Mullane of Mullane Literary, who immediately saw the possibilities for this project and brought it to the attention of the historic Beacon Press. Gayatri Patnaik, my visionary and discerning editor at Beacon, brought clarity and focus to the manuscript, time and time again. Her colleague Rachael Marks provided insightful comments about the text and was a great steward of it. Melissa Dobson was a sterling copy editor.
My thanks to dear colleagues and friends Nadia Abu El-Haj, Jafari Allen, Karen Barkey, Peter Bearman, Marcellus Blount, George Chauncey, Peter Chow-White, Jelani Cobb, Yinon Cohen, Dalton Conley, Jessie Daniels, Thomas DiPrete, Troy Duster, Gil Eyal, Farah Ron Gregg, Jasmine Griffin, Evelynn Hammonds, Fredrick Harris, Carl Hart, Tayari Jones, Paul D. Miller, Lisa Nakamura, Mark Anthony Neal, Aaron Panofsky, Elizabeth Povinelli, Guthrie Ramsey, Adam Reich, Susan Reverby, Charmaine Royal, Saskia Sassen, Carla Shedd, Rebecca Skloot, Sy Spillerman, David Stark, Thomas Thurston, Van Tran, Vina Tran, Thuy Linh Tu, Diane Vaughn, Sudhir Venkatesh, Harriet Washington, Josh Whitford, and Isabel Wilkerson.
My most heartfelt appreciation to my extended family—the Nelsons, the Mundys, the Williamses, the Alexanders, the Ghebreyesuses, and the Etiennes. I am happily beholden to Andrea Nelson Saunders, Aaron Saunders, Robert Nelson Jr., Dawn Nelson, Anthony Nelson, and Vera Nelson for their love and support. I am continually awed by the boundless promise of Aidan Nelson, Austin Nelson, Anthony Nelson Jr., Alexis Nelson, Alondra Christine Hall, Anita Hall, Ariella Nelson, Brianna Nelson, Bryce Saunders, Joseph Hall Jr., Mya Nelson, Reina Saunders, and Renee Nelson. I am proud to call Joseph Kim and Jonathan Merino kin. My great-nieces, Valentina, Ava, and Camilla, delight me to no end. My loving parents, Robert S. Nelson Sr. and Delores Y. Nelson, always believe I am better than I am. My love, Garraud Etienne, is simply the best.