The seed of this book was planted some forty years ago, when I was an undergraduate student at the University of Michigan. Professor William Toll led a wonderful seminar there in African American history, the assigned readings of which included W.E.B. Du Bois’s Black Reconstruction in America and James M. McPherson’s The Negro’s Civil War. Those two books opened my eyes for the first time to the drama of the wartime struggle against slavery and the slaveholders. During the intervening decades of reading, thinking, and talking about that subject, I have accrued intellectual debts far too big and numerous to be adequately credited in a brief note of acknowledgment or in this book’s endnotes (most of which cite sources only for specific quotations or lesser-known facts).
But I would at least like to name and thank some of my most recent creditors.
Eric Foner, Jim Horton, James Oakes, Josh Brown, and Elliott Gorn helped me navigate the choppy waters of fellowship applications. Speaking of which, I express my sincere appreciation to the Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities—and its director and senior associate director, Diane Harris and Christine Catanzarite—for a fellowship that offered both a semester’s leave from teaching and the chance to exchange ideas with them and the other fine scholars affiliated with them. And to Tom Bedwell, the irreplaceable business manager of the history department at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, for arranging the finances that supported that plus another semester of leave. The Newberry Library kindly offered me a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship to work there; it was my bad luck that other circumstances prevented me from accepting it. Many thanks to history department chairs Antoinette Burton and James Barrett for being considerate of my time when handing out committee assignments during the years when I was teaching full-time.
Sally Heinzel and Martin Smith provided skillful and energetic research assistance. A number of scholars shared their knowledge of specific subjects and the fruits of their own research, including Jonathan Beecher, Victoria Bynum, Lynda Crist, Paul Escott, Gary Gallagher, Mark Grimsley, Daniel Hamilton, James Illingworth, Christopher Morris, Christopher Phillips, Daniel Raymond, Leslie Rowland, William K. Scarborough, J. Mills Thornton, Mark Traugott, and David Williams.
I no longer believe it possible to write a book entirely free of factual or interpretive errors. But my deepest gratitude goes to those who caught at least some of them before this book reached print and who made insightful suggestions about how to write (or rewrite) it. For reading and critiquing the entire manuscript, my effusive thanks to Joshua Brown, John Coski, Gary Gallagher, Joseph Glatthaar, Dan Green, Sally Heinzel, Ruth Hoffman, James M. McPherson, James Oakes, David Roediger, and Scott Ware. O. Vernon Burton, Elliott Gorn, Mark Grimsley, and Erik S. McDuffie kindly read and helpfully responded to sections of the manuscript.
Years ago, friends told me I needed to find a literary agent. Carol Berkin specifically pointed me toward Dan Green of POM, Inc., and Dan has proven simply superb. Thanks, Dan. And thanks to Tim Bartlet at Random House, who offered me the book contract and then showed great consideration and patience as my editor during a difficult first year on the project. When Tim moved on to other pastures, Lindsey Schwoeri took over and has worked very hard to improve the book’s clarity and readability. Michelle Daniel did an amazing, meticulous job of copyediting the manuscript as a whole. Nancy Delia, the associate managing editor, couldn’t have been more conscientious or cooperative.
A number of longtime friends and companions offered warm encouragement and sustaining friendship. At the top of that list are Josh Brown, Elliott Gorn, and Scott Ware—and especially Ruth Hoffman, who has brightened my life beyond measure. I dedicate this book to her with all my love and the most profound appreciation. I also want to thank Mike and Joey for not allowing me to get so deeply buried in this project that I forgot about them.
Josh Brown—selfless, as always—gave me invaluable help in tracking down, identifying, and obtaining visual images. I’d also like to thank the following individuals and agencies for their assistance in that endeavor: Ed Jackson; Victoria Bynum; Peter H. Wood; William (Bill) H. Brown, Kim Anderson Cumber, and Alan Westmoreland of the State Archives of North Carolina; Judy Bolton of the Louisiana State University Libraries Special Collections; Nicole Joniec of the Library Company of Philadelphia; Eric Seiferth of the Historic New Orleans Collection; and Nicole Contaxis of the New-York Historical Society.
My father died while I was working on this book. My debt to him was the greatest of all. He taught me to read, to write, and to think critically. I’ve tried to put those skills to worthwhile use. During his last year, he always asked, “How’s the book going?” I’m sorry he didn’t live to see it completed. I don’t know for sure that he would have liked it, but I hope so.