Herman L. Bennett - African Kings and Black Slaves: Sovereignty and Dispossession in the Early Modern Atlantic

If I thanked all the individuals whom I have burdened with the ideas manifest here, this book would be a far weightier tome. Those who have been subjected to both the ideas and various chapters, along the way offering their critiques to the numerous incarnations of this project, have been kind to indulge me. I thank you all even if you are not personally acknowledged here. Too many talks and a faulty method of recording who said what, when, and where bares considerable blame. I do recall specific conversations concerning this book with Steven Amsterdam, Linda Asher, Jeremy Adelman, Ralph Bauer, Eric Bayruns, Lauren Benton, Ira Berlin, Stephen Best, Nick Biddle, John Blanton, Christopher Brown, Sherwin Bryant, Susan Buck-Morss, Antoinette Burton, Clare Carroll, Brian Connolly, Marcela Echeverria, Brent Edwards, Duncan Faherty, Ada Ferrer, Antonio Ferros, John Eric Frankson, Miles Grier, Kim Hall, Saidiya Hartman, Kristina Huang, David Joselit, Richard Kagan, David Kazanjian, Paul Landau, Uday Mehta, Max Mishler, Joseph C. Miller, Jennifer L. Morgan, Fred Moten, Stephan Palmie, Michael Ralph, Robert Reid-Pharr, Yolanda San-Miguel Martinez, Joan Scott, Nikhil Singh, Julia Skurski, Timothy Tyson, Megan Vaughan, David Wheat, and Gary Wilder. Special debts will always be due to Antoinette Burton, Clare Carroll, Henrique Espada Lima, Kristina Huang, Jennifer Morgan, Julie Skurski, Megan Vaughan, and David Wheat for their extensive critiques. Without question, you have made this a better book. Thank you! I thank the following institutions for their support or invitations to speak about the project: the Department of English at the University of Pennsylvania, Latin American and Latino Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, the McNeil Center, NYU Atlantic History Seminar, the Department of History at The Johns Hopkins University, Dwight Eisenhower Library, the Department of History at Rutgers University, Rutgers Center for Historical Analysis, University of California at Berkeley, The Graduate Center, Mina Rees Library, the Committee on Globalization & Social Change. Bob Lockhart, Lily Palladino, and the staff at the University of Pennsylvania Press need to be acknowledged for their exacting professional standards. Bob has been a terrific editor but also a friend able to coax me into writing a better book. Thank you!

From what has been signified above and is true for all scholarship, no project is crafted in isolation. Institutions and individuals matter. Antoinette Burton and David Kazanjian have modeled what it means to be brilliant but also remarkably engaged with mentoring and keeping the political at the forefront. I am humbled by the virtues they exemplify as intellectuals. I have been fortunate to enjoy the company of so many good peoplemy parents, Lee and Helga; my son Carl; my in-laws Cynthia Young and Zachary Morgan; Julie Livingston; Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi; Nikhil Singh; Thuy Tu; and, of course, the usualswho have sustained me in the writing of this book. Working with the CUNY Pipeline Fellows, the Pipeline Staff, the MAGNET Fellows, Eric Frankson, and the good folks whose lives have intersected with the Office of Educational Opportunity & Diversity Programs (EOD) has been a steady source of inspiration. My daughter Emma has been intrigued about this project from the beginning to its completion and so has her great-grandmother Maymette. Their interest mattered at crucial moments. What links Emma and Maymette, beyond being related, is deep curiosity and Jennifer Morgan, respectively the mom and the granddaughter. Jennifer has often taken time from her extensive intellectual and institutional involvements to make so much possible. It is with love and affection that I dedicate this book to her.

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