ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I have benefited from the support of many institutions and individuals. I relish the privilege of saying thank you.

DePauw University offered extraordinary support for this project from beginning to end. Resources in time and money have come in many forms: a Summer Stipend to launch exploratory research, a Fisher Time-Out and a John J. and Elizabeth Bowden Baughman Faculty Fellowship to sustain progress, an Asher Fund in the Social Sciences grant to help make a two-semester sabbatical possible, and a Fisher Fellowship to enable a midcycle sabbatical during which I completed and revised the manuscript. In addition, a five-year appointment as Andrew Wallace Crandall Professor of History provided research funds that facilitated the purchase of books, the acquisition of images, and the summer research assistance of the eagle-eyed, infinitely enthusiastic Kenneth Decker. Former vice president of academic affairs Anne Harris secured a generous subvention to defray publication costs. Grants from the Professional Development Funds helped cover indexing and other research-related expenses. Dean of Faculty Bridget Gourley offered guidance on resources, as did Terry Bruner, Ashley Dayhuff, and Becky Wallace in Academic Affairs. The Janet Prindle Institute for Ethics at DePauw twice provided me sabbatical office space and the kind of calming environment writers dream about. Supplementary sabbatical relocation funds facilitated time well spent in Washington, D.C., New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and California. DePauw’s global information systems specialist Beth Wilkerson produced maps and the Jay Family Tree with great skill.

I also benefited from generous external funding. A Kate B. and Hall J. Peterson Fellowship from the American Antiquarian Society; an Associate Fellowship from the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale University; and an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellowship from the Huntington Library each provided month-long residencies that gave me access to renowned archives, widened my scholarly circle, and helped me articulate the project’s parameters.

The dedicated staffs and supporters of the Jay Heritage Center, the New-York Historical Society, the Houghton Library at Harvard University, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and, especially, the Rare Book and Manuscript Room in the Butler Library at Columbia University made my research possible. The John Jay State Historic Site in Katonah, New York, repeatedly welcomed me to work in their archives and provided copies of crucial materials. Rick Provine, Tiffany Hebb, and the rest of the staff at the Roy O. West Library at DePauw kept the resources flowing to Greencastle, Indiana; in the midst of the pandemic, they kicked it up another notch. I thank the Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Libraries, for permission to quote from the Gerrit Smith Papers.

Three Hills and Cornell University Press have been patient partners as the project made its way from proposal to manuscript to book. Michael McGandy is an exceptional editor and advocate. The editorial board at Cornell and the advisory board at Three Hills offered perceptive advice. Clare Kirkpatrick Jones guided the manuscript forward. Brock Schnoke got the marketing conversation underway. Art director Scott Levine produced a striking cover. Karen Laun oversaw production for Cornell. Kate Gibson at Westchester Publishing Services did heroic work. Gail Naron Chalew carefully copyedited the entire manuscript. Susan Storch expertly produced the index.

The commentary of readers and listeners has had a tremendous impact. John Brooke and Graham Russell Gao Hodges read the entire manuscript at an important stage. Their thoughtful responses added to the many ways they have sustained my scholarship through the years. Other friends and colleagues who helped me get my story straight are Dan Albert, Ken Decker, Jason Duncan, Will Getter, Patrick Griffin, Sarah Gronningsater, Robert Gross, Leslie James, Julie Mujic, Louise North, Paul Polgar, Timothy Shannon, Manisha Sinha, Emily Smedra, Carl Smith, Jim Solomon, James Ward, and the late Al Young.

Attendees at a variety of seminars, symposiums, and conferences have also made their mark, including at the Columbia’s Legacy: Friends and Enemies in the New Nation conference; two Frederick Douglass bicentennial conferences, one in Paris and one in Indianapolis; a conference at Northwestern University to honor my graduate mentor Timothy H. Breen; the Great Lakes Colleges Association Black Studies Conference; the John Jay Homestead Historic Site’s symposium on slavery; the Newberry Seminar in Early American History; the Ohio Seminar in Early American History and Culture; and the Region and Nation in American Histories of Race and Slavery conference at Mt. Vernon. Pride of place belongs to the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic, whose annual conferences repeatedly allowed me to talk about the Jays and slavery; a comment by Graham Hodges in Lexington, Kentucky, may very well have started it all. Two faculty research colloquia and a Black Studies-sponsored talk have allowed me to share pieces of the project with DePauw colleagues.

For their consideration, kindness, and assistance along the way, I thank Arthur Benware, Andrea Cerbie, Marilyn Culler, Eric Foner, Landa Freeman, Heather Iannucci, Isa North, John Stockbridge, Julia Warger, Janet Wedge, and Bethany White. My friends Ted Jacobi and Paul DeGooyer each provided a key late-breaking favor.

Collegiality aided and abetted me at every turn. My now-retired colleagues Yung-chen Chiang, John Dittmer, Mac Dixon-Fyle, John Schlotterbeck, and Barbara Steinson, as well as Bob Gross, my mentor going back to undergraduate days, all have shown me what it means to be in it for the long haul. My current History Department colleagues—Tony Andersson, Ryan Bean, Julia Bruggemann, Bob Dewey, Nahyan Fancy, Josh Herr, Aldrin Magaya, Sarah Rowley, and Barbara Whitehead—broaden my horizons. Hope Sutherlin ensured that my two terms as chair stayed on the rails. Scott Riggle kept me laughing on-air and off.

Writing a book about other people’s families, I relied on my own. My cousin Jane Matthews welcomed me into her home for weeks at a time while I did my New York City research. Alan Zheultin and Wendy Botuck also made Manhattan visits a pleasure, as did my friends Paul Schwartzberg and Lisa Waldman. Barbara Zheultin assured me of the work’s broader significance. The Fennells of Evanston and the Dunnetts of Naperville have kept food and fun flowing. The Connecticut Gellmans have always been in my corner. Sheila Z. Willer has supported me in every way a mother can support a son.

My wife Monica spreads justice and love. She is what the world needs now—and I always. This book is dedicated to our children Hannah and Ben—sources of boundless pride and joy.