David J. Silverman - Red Brethren: The Brothertown and Stockbridge Indians and the Problem of Race in Early America

I managed the personal and professional challenges of writing this book with the generous financial support of several institutions, the collegiality of my scholarly community, and the love of family and friends. My gratitude extends wide and deep.

I began this project during a year as Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at the American Antiquarian Society; two years later, the AAS invited me back for a month-long stay. As ever, the AAS was the ideal incubator for my work. Two other research grants were also critical to this work in its initial stages: one, from the New England Regional Fellowship Consortium, allowed me to visit the Massachusetts Historical Society, the Rhode Island Historical Society, the Connecticut Historical Society, and the Mystic Seaport Museum; another, from the American Philosophical Societys Phillips Fund for the Study of Ethnohistory, sent me to the Special Collections of the Hamilton College Library. Later, several timely summer grants from George Washington University enabled me to visit a host of archives in the Northeast and Midwest: the Special Collections of the Haverford College Library, the New-York Historical Society, the New York Public Library, the New York State Archives, the Onondaga County Historical Association, the Special Collections of the Cornell University Library, the Special Collections of the Vassar College Library, the Newberry Library, the Indiana Historical Society, the Wisconsin Historical Society, the Connecticut State Archives, the Special Collections of the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center, the Indian and Colonial Research Center (Mystic, Connecticut), the Beinecke Library of Yale University, the Rauner Library of Dartmouth College, the Harvard University Archives, the Phillips Library of the Peabody Essex Museum, the Congregational Library (Boston), the Boston Public Library, the Stockbridge (Mass.) Public Library, the Stockbridge Town Clerks Office, and the National Archives of the United States. I thank the staff at all these institutions for their courteous assistance. I finished writing this book during a year of academic leave funded by an Oscar Handlin Fellowship from the National Endowment of the Humanities and a semester sabbatical from George Washington University. I owe special thanks to my department chairmen, Tyler Anbinder and William Becker, for going to bat for me time and time again and to the G.W. administration for its support of my research.

I vetted the ideas for this book at several conferences, in a handful of articles, and in stimulating exchanges with colleagues. I presented portions of my work to audiences at the annual meetings of the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, the Organization of American Historians, the American Historical Association, and the American Studies Association. I am indebted to commentators Nancy Shoemaker, Seth Mallios, Joel Martin, and William Hart, and the audiences at these sessions, for their constructive criticism. I also discussed portions of this book with the seminar of the Johns Hopkins University Department of History, the Washington Area Early American Seminar, Harvard Universitys Atlantic History Seminar, and, not least, several of my classes at G.W. I benefited tremendously from the feedback I received at these sessions. Articles related to this project passed through the unparalleled editorial process of the William and Mary Quarterly and a riveting symposium of scholars working on Indian Mission History gathered together by Mark Nicholas and Joel Martin. In these contexts, I received the counsel of Daniel Mandell, Rachel Wheeler, Tracy Leavelle, Mark Nicholas, Hillary Wyss, Douglas Winiarski, and Scott Casper, among many others. Perhaps the most essential advice of all came from Wyss, Winiarski, and Jon Parmenter, in their responses to a draft of my first four chapters. I feel fortunate to have such generous and knowledgeable friends.

Members of the Brothertown, Stockbridge, and Mohegan Indian communities have profoundly shaped this book. Caroline Adler of Brothertown, Cindy Jungenberg of Stockbridge, and Melissa Tantaquidgeon-Zobel of Mohegan all provided invaluable comments on the first full draft. Adler has unfailingly answered my many queries ever since, and Tantaquidgeon-Zobel also helped me to secure the image of the story box which opens chapter two. On my visits to Wisconsin, I received warm hospitality from Adler and Dennis DeGrass of Brothertown, Dorothy W. Davids and Ruth A. Gudinas of Stockbridge, and the Stockbridge-Munsee Educational Committee. Numerous other people from these communities have shared their thoughts with me in passing. I hope my work does justice to the legacies of their ancestors.

Permissions to reproduce the illustrations for this book came from the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Connecticut Historical Society, Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College, Mohegan Tribe, and Wisconsin Historical Society. William Keegan, my cartographer, was a pleasure to work with in the design of the maps.

It would take a poet to express the ways in which my family has sustained me throughout this project. Aquinnah and Bela Silverman are my inspirations, and Julie Fisher is my strength. I will forever associate this book with their loving encouragement. My parents, Richard and Julia Silverman, have come through for me time and time again when I have needed them most. I dedicate this book to them as a modest but heartfelt memorial of my love and gratitude.