This book is all the richer thanks to the support and help of scores of wonderful people. The research for this project began when I worked with an inspiring cohort of supportive faculty as a graduate student at Northwestern University. From the outset, Stephanie McCurry has shared her formidable intellect and excellent advice. Susan Pearson was instrumental in the development and guidance of this project. Her insights have been vital. These scholars’ ideas and those of Josef Barton, Steven Hahn, and Amy Dru Stanley have immensely enriched this volume through our many years of working together. At Northwestern, I would also like to thank the Departments of History and African American Studies, particularly Henry Binford, Paula Blaskovits, Suzette Denose, Marsha Figaro, Krzys Kozubski, Kate Masur, Dwight A. McBride, and Michael Sherry.
In the process of researching this book, I have accrued a multitude of intellectual debts and benefitted from numerous sources of financial and professional support. The staffs at the Wilfrid Laurier University Library, the University of Arizona Library, and the Northwestern University Library, especially their interlibrary loan departments, fulfilled my most outlandish requests with essential promptness. Chieko Maene and Pam Schaus showed me the wonders of mapping software. My many research trips were funded by generous sources and aided by dozens of able archivists. These important grants included a Wilfrid Laurier University short-term research grant; a Wilfrid Laurier University travel grant; two travel grants from the Northwestern University history department; a Northwestern University graduate research grant; a Bentley Historical Library research fellowship, Michigan Historical Collections; a Price visiting research fellowship, William L. Clements Library, the University of Michigan; a Frederick Binkerd Artz summer research grant, Oberlin College Library; and a King V. Hostick Award from the Illinois Historical Preservation Agency and State Historical Society. More recently, my thanks go to the Wilfrid Laurier University Office of Research Services for a book preparation grant. On the publishing side, it has been a true pleasure to work with Mark Heineke, Susan Bean, Tim Roberts, and Gary Von Euer at Northern Illinois University Press and the Early American Places Series in the production of this book.
I have been blessed with welcoming and inspiring colleagues. From my time at the University of Arizona Department of History, my particular thanks go to Karen Anderson, Michael Bonner, Ben Irvin, and Katherine Morrissey. My colleagues and friends at Wilfrid Laurier University have improved my life, my writing, and my teaching. I much appreciate their encouragement and support, especially Blaine Chiasson, Darryl Dee, Richard Fuke, John Laband, Joyce Lorimer, Amy Milne-Smith, Darren Mulloy, Susan Neylan, Chris Nighman, and Eva Plach.
I have also been fortunate to have friends and fellow historians who carefully read segments or all of this work and offered incisive comments. At Northwestern, the United States History Dissertators’ Group and the Center for African American History Dissertators’ Group were enormously helpful, especially Tobin Miller Shearer, Mshaï Mwangola, and Katy Burns-Howard. Astute and encouraging feedback also came from Adam Crerar, Jana Measells, and Peter Jaros. Frank Gaugler, Jenn Q. Goddu, and Deborah Van Seters shared their writing expertise and excellent ideas. Vibrant discussions of scholarship at the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic annual meetings have included valuable comments from David Brodnax Sr. and Christopher Waldrep. Finally, my deep thanks go to the two readers for Northern Illinois University Press for their critiques and advice. Any errors that remain are my own.
The comfort and camaraderie of friends near and far can never be overestimated, especially given the solitary nature of the enterprise of writing history. Thanks go to my fellow travelers Francois Barthelat, Debs Cane, Anne Dabrowski, Nancy Deutsch, Sarah Dugan, Cari Ishida, Karen O’Brien, Vandna Sinha, and Chantal Sudbrack for sharing the joys and trials of graduate school with me. We are now so dispersed, but I will never forget the years we had together in Evanston and Chicago. Across the United States, dear friends including Sarah and Dave Cohen, Kimberly and David Hawkins, Laura Mack, Molly Steinbauer, and Jackie and Lucas Silacci have provided this itinerant researcher with respite. Canada is my home now, and I am thankful for many thoughtful conversations and relaxing times in Kitchener with Lesli Ann Agcaoili, Chip Bender, Antoinette Duplessis, Wendy Janzen, Mary Jo Megginson, Juanita Metzger, Judith Nicholson, Linda Quirke, Tanya Richardson, and Leandra Zarnow.
I am lucky to have a massive extended family that has ever supported my long journey into academia. Thank you to the Mathesons, the Weiners, the Goulds, and the Litins. My parents, Bob and Elaine Weiner, have always encouraged me in everything, not least my loves of history and reading. Their assistance to me is immeasurable. I treasure their love and their faith in me, and memories of all of the wonderful places we have seen together. I dedicate this book to them. My brother, Eric Weiner, has been my friend and ally from our days of digging mud holes in the backyard to the present. Thanks to him, Kyra Weiner is a happy addition to the family. Most of all, Tim has brought so much joy and so many streams, trees, and chili peppers to my life. I thank him for his optimism, new perspectives, patience, and unflagging love.