Early American Places is a collaborative project of the University of Georgia Press, New York University Press, Northern Illinois University Press, and the University of Nebraska Press. The series is supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. For more information, please visit www.earlyamericanplaces.org.
Advisory Board
Vincent Brown, Duke University
Andrew Cayton, Miami University
Cornelia Hughes Dayton, University of Connecticut
Nicole Eustace, New York University
Amy S. Greenberg, Pennsylvania State University
Ramn A. Gutirrez, University of Chicago
Peter Charles Hoffer, University of Georgia
Karen Ordahl Kupperman, New York University
Joshua Piker, University of Oklahoma
Mark M. Smith, University of South Carolina
Rosemarie Zagarri, George Mason University
For Ali, my Jamaican mother, sister, and friend.
This book has been a long labor of love sixteen years in the making, and it would not have been possible without the many people who helped it come to fruition. First, I want to thank my family for their unconditional love and support. From the childhood vacations spent at historic sites across the eastern seaboard that helped put me on this path to the endless number of phone calls just to say Hang in there, my parents have been there with me and for me from the beginning. My husband, John, is my foundation, and for that I am so very thankful. Having him in my corner means the world. My sweet friend Alison Delgado, to whom this book is dedicated, has been my guardian angel these past few years. I miss her every day, but I know she would be proud of me as well as this book. Family is strength, and this project is an excellent example of how.
This study would not have been possible without financial support from several institutions. First and foremost, thanks to a substantial Fulbright Fellowship from 2002 to 2003, I was able to spend ten amazing months in Jamaica, where I conducted extensive research in the Jamaican National Archives in Spanishtown, the National Library of Jamaica in Kingston, and the West India Collection at the University of the West Indies in Mona. My time in Jamaica was just as much a life experience as it was a research trip, and Im so appreciative for the opportunity. Id like to thank those institutions for allowing me access to the rich sources that they contain, in particular the staff of those institutions, who patiently brought me document after document and who reminded me that I should get something to eat when I forgot (which was more often than not). While there, I had the opportunity to meet Michelle Craig McDonald and Paula Saunders, who were completing their Fulbrights alongside mine, and I valued their input and insight as we worked our way through the material at hand. James Robertson, who was just putting the finishing touches on his impressive study of Spanishtown, Jamaica, was an amazing resource. Not only was his advice on navigating the various collections on the island immensely helpful, but his enthusiastic encouragement of this project was just what I needed on those days when the complexities of the material seemed to dominate the day. Special thanks also to Ken and Isabel Magnus, who welcomed me into their home on several occasions for food, family, and fellowship, as well as the occasional cricket lesson. Short-term grants from the William J. Clements Library at the University of Michigan, the John Hope Franklin Collection at the Duke University Library, and the American Historical Association allowed me to conduct additional research upon my return to the States. Id like to particularly thank John Harriman, who sadly passed away in 2005, for his assistance at the Clements Library. Im also grateful to the Graduate School at Florida International University for awarding me the 2003 Dissertation Year Fellowship, a grant that provided immense support during the early writing phase of this book.
I am indebted to many at Florida International University, especially my dissertation committee, for all of the time and effort invested in me during the research, writing, and revision of the original manuscript. My chair, James H. Sweet, who is now at the University of Wisconsin, pushed me to be the historian that I am today, and I hope that I have made him proud. Thanks to his insight and guidance, I was able to write a manuscript that required little revision before its publication, and I thank him for that. I can only hope to be the mentor he was to me to my own students. Sherry Johnsons and Akin Ogundirans background in Caribbean studies and African history, respectively, helped me to keep this projects focus on the Atlantic, and I so appreciate their comments, suggestions, and encouragement throughout the process. She may not know it, but Sherrys class on Florida and the Caribbean during my first semester in the doctoral program at FIU is what shifted my focus from American history to the Caribbean in the first place, and I am indebted to her for that epiphany. Id also like to thank Christopher Gray, Alex Lichtenstein, Lara Kriegel, Noble David Cook, Brian Peterson, Victor Uribe-Uran, Ken Lipartito, Anthony Maingot, Darden Pyron, Mark Szuchman, and Sumita Chatterjee, who all offered feedback in one form or another. Thanks especially to Lara Kriegel for valuable feedback on my grant applications and prospectus, Alex Lichtenstein for his direction and encouragement, Noble David Cook for his guidance and magdalena stash, Brian Peterson for making me the teacher I am today, and Anthony Maingot for the valuable conversations on race during my time spent exploring the sociology of slavery. Although I knew him for only a short period of time, Christopher Gray had a massive impact on my research and program of study, and I wish he were around today to see how everything turned out. While at FIU, I had the opportunity of working as a graduate assistant for Sidney Mintz when he joined our faculty as an endowed chair. I so enjoyed our talks and recognize them as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to learn from one of the leaders in the field. My Atlantic studies compatriots Audra Diptee, German Palacios, Marcy Duarte, Tom and Penny Cramer, Frank Luca, Jerome Egger, Kindon Meik, and Charlotte Cosner were my FIU family, and our many talks and discussions after class and at conferences were helpful before I hit the archives. Thanks for helping me flush out my ideas so early on. Charlotte and I have always done everything together, from comps to tenure to the publication of our first books, and Ive really benefited from the expertise and insight that shes brought to the journey. Last, and certainly not least, I am particularly grateful for Elena Maubrey and Hayat Kassab-Gresham, my Miami mamis, who kept a watchful eye over me during my time at FIU and who sent me love and support while I was researching and writing this manuscript.
