ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

WRITING A BOOK ABOUT WOMEN AND MEN WHEN YOU CANNOT HOLD conversations with them, observe their gesticulations, and look into their eyes is difficult. Yet writing books about subjects I am passionate about, interested in learning about, and inspired by is the reward for being a historian. I am overjoyed to produce a book that helps to place another piece of the puzzle on slavery and medicine together.

So many people, organizations, and institutions have supported me over the years. I am thankful for their assistance. I am indebted to the staff members at the following libraries for allowing me access to their records: the University Research Library at the University of California, Los Angeles; the South Caroliniana Library at the University of South Carolina; the University of Alabama Archives; the Reynolds-Finley Historical Library at University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB); the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; the University of Pennsylvania’s University Archives and Records Center; the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Photographic Archives Collection, at Harvard University; the National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health; the Library of Congress; the National Archives; and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), now the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. I spent nearly a month at the South Caroliniana Library, and Brian Cuthrell and Graham Duncan of the Manuscript Division were wonderfully attentive and helpful during my stay there. I owe a huge debt to Debra Scarborough, now retired from ACOG, for her professionalism, knowledge, support, and friendship. Debra introduced me to key texts on gynecological medicine, believed in my project from its inception, and located obscure sources for me. Mary Hyde, the senior director of the ACOG library, and her staff made my summer treks to Washington, D.C., pleasurable. Margaret (Peggy) Balch, of UAB’s Reynolds-Finley, proved a godsend in the latter stages of my process.

I was fortunate to receive external funding from a number of institutions, including UCLA’s Department of History, Center for the Study of Women, and Institute of American Cultures and the university’s Ralph J. Bunche Center for African-American Studies. ACOG provided me with a generous and prestigious fellowship in 2007 that allowed me to gather much of the records I have on early gynecological medicine. Scholars at the University of Virginia’s Carter G. Woodson’s African-American and African Studies Institute selected me as a Postdoctoral fellow for 2008–9. I still consider my time spent at the institute as one of the most fulfilling professional experiences of my life. The University of Mississippi awarded me summer stipends in 2009 and 2010 that proved invaluable as I researched and wrote this book. The University of Limerick provided me a week’s stay, when I was able to present my research to my colleagues in Ireland who helped me locate new sources for my work and provided critical feedback. Further, portions of an earlier draft of Medical Bondage appeared as “Perfecting the Degraded Body: Slavery, Irish-Immigration, and American Gynaecology,” in Power in History: From Medieval Ireland to the Post-Modern World, edited by Anthony McElligott, Liam Chambers, Ciara Breathnach, and Catherine Lawless (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 2011). Last, Queens College, CUNY, granted me a yearlong sabbatical during which I was able to finish this manuscript. I also received a William Stewart Travel Grant from the City University of New York in 2016 that allowed me to travel and present my research internationally.

Of course, scholars build their work because others have cleared a way for each successive generation. My mentors at Clark Atlanta University, Dr. Janice Sumler-Edmond and Dr. David F. Dorsey, transformed my life. Each good thing I accomplish as a historian is because of my interactions with and training from these two scholars. I am indebted to my dissertation advisor, Brenda Stevenson, whose expertise on U.S. slavery still impresses me. Ellen DuBois, Joel Braslow, and Caroline Streeter were wonderful dissertation committee members. While I was at UCLA, Jessica Wang, Scot Brown, William Marotti, Ra’anan Boustan, Valerie Matsumoto, Gary Nash, and Marion Olivas, former director of UCLA’s National Center for History in the Schools, were most encouraging. My cohort members and fellow colleagues, Jakobi Williams, Miguel Chavez, Natalie Joy, Joshua Paddison, Jesse Schrier, Melanie Schmidt Arias, Stephanie Amerian, Mehera Gerardo, Sheila Gardette, Ebony Shaw, Lisa Boyd, Milo Alvarez, and Brandi Brimmer were wonderful colleagues. While in Los Angeles, I was involved in the Southern California Alumnae Chapter of Bennett College, my undergraduate alma mater, and the sista-friends I made there sustained me in ways that still move me deeply. Marilyn Mackel, Diana White, and the late Marjorie Penalver loved on me deeply, and I appreciate their friendship. At UVA, Deborah McDowell and Claudrena Harold mentored me. I still stand in awe of their genius. My community of Woodson fellows is still intact, and I am grateful for it. While I worked at the University of Mississippi, I was a member of a welcoming and supportive community in the Department of History. Thank you. My colleagues at Queens College, CUNY, are smart, hardworking, and supportive. The editorial team at the University of Georgia Press has been amazing. Walter Biggins and Thomas Roche, thank you for serving as editors who wanted the best from me for this project. I would also like to thank the Race and Atlantic World Series editors, Richard Newman, Patrick Rael, and Manisha Sinh, for supporting my work.

Finally, I give thanks to my village, especially three recent ancestors who continue watch over me: Larry Norbert, Rodney Craig Goodwin, and Nakia Spriggs. Scholars of slavery, gender, and medicine Jim Downs, Sharla Fett, Edward Baptist, Jennifer Morgan, Barbara Krauthamer, Steven Stowe, Celia Naylor, Natasha Lightfoot, Catherine Clinton, Christopher Willoughby, Kellie Carter-Jackson, Natalie Leger, Dennis Tyler, Sonya Donaldson, Brandi Hughes, Nicole Ivy, Shennette Garrett-Scott, Cherisse Jones-Branch, and all those who have read and provided feedback on my work. My sista-scholar group members, Sasha Turner, Talitha LeFlouria, Kennetta Hammond-Perry, Lashawn Harris, and Sowandé Mustakeem, have literally been my greatest support system since I entered the profession. Thank you and I love you all dearly. Also, my sorors of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc., have supported me since 1992. My family, my maternal grandparents, the late King Solomon Cooper and Mary Cooper, a retired black nurse—thank you for helping to raise me as a proud Low Country South Carolina Geechee girl. My paternal grandparents, the late Mr. Ben Cooper Sr. and Pastor Ella Bell Cooper, privileged their family and their faith, and I am grateful to have experienced their love of both. My parents, Arliree “Tee” Cooper and Ben Cooper Jr., along with my stepmother, Alveta, have always supported me, even when I decided at thirty years old to move across the country and start a doctoral program with a new husband. Thank you and I love you for telling me I was simply the best since birth; more brown girls need to hear and believe this message. My siblings and their spouses, Adrienne and Richard Putney and Ben Cooper III and Marquita Raley-Cooper, thank you for your unwavering support and love (plus, we literally share the best laughs together). My aunt Geneva Isa has been selfless with me since birth—thank you. My nephews Nicholas, London King, and the soon-to-be Paris Solomon: I do my work to prepare a legacy for you. Brooke Walker, you are my best friend and sister, thanks for the decades of love and support. Bryan, who knew nearly two decades ago that we would have experienced so much together? I am grateful for our journey, your gentleness, and your steadfast support of me. You have sacrificed so much to push me ahead unselfishly, often at your own expense. I love you.