Читать книгу Unwelcome Americans - Ruth Wallis Herndon - Страница 8

Preface

PHEBE PERKINS is responsible for this book. The testimony she gave to Hopkinton, Rhode Island, officials in 1785 came to light in 1991 under such unusual circumstances that it forced me to pay attention to her, and it set me on a detective hunt through historical documents to discover everything I could about her. By the time I had pieced together fragments of information and had seen the shape of her life, I was fiercely determined that her poignant story—and others like it—should be published.

In 1991, I was in the midst of researching twelve Rhode Island towns in the revolutionary era, a project that required that I essentially camp out in one town hall after another for weeks at a stretch, reading through historic documents that enabled me to see in my mind’s eye the town of two hundred years ago. Hopkinton—Phebe Perkins’s town—had served as my prototype, and I had spent a solid six months in 1990 working through every eighteenth-century document housed at the town hall. Town clerk Jenarita Aldrich shared my passion for her town records, and she scouted for old documents in odd places during rare free moments. In April 1991, she made a startling discovery: a cache of eighteenth-century papers housed in old boxes in the town hall attic. The local news media were most interested in a 1776 manuscript copy of the Declaration of Independence found among the papers, but what set my heart racing was the rough draft notes of the council meeting at which Phebe Perkins had given her testimony some two hundred years before.

Until then, I had paid little attention to Phebe Perkins. She was mentioned only briefly in the town council minutes of that meeting in January 1785, for town clerk Abel Tanner had not considered her testimony worth including when he copied his notes into the official town books. As I read her compelling testimony, I found myself mentally berating Tanner for obscuring this story. By excluding her testimony from the final record, he had veiled the splash her story made in Hopkinton in 1784 and 1785. When I went back to the official council minutes for another look, I found a trail of references to her, and I discovered that the town councilmen had convened a special meeting at the house where she was staying in order to question her. Phebe’s situation had prompted the most powerful men in the community to journey through the January cold to interrogate her about her life. Here was a story that should be told.

Galvanized by Phebe Perkins’s case, I began to trace the stories of other poor and unwelcome people, my interest sparked originally by some particularly intriguing piece of evidence such as a transient examination or warning-out order. I began to collect methodically all the information I could about individuals like Phebe Perkins. As the collection grew, I realized there was a whole population of unwelcome people whose existence I had never realized. This volume grew out of my desire that these people have their stories told, to reverse the process by which their stories were obscured two centuries ago. By extracting relevant information from eighteenth-century records and constructing whole narratives of their lives, I hope to put these people back on the landscape of the New England town.

At every stage of this project, I benefited from the support and expertise of others. Years ago, my adviser at American University, Roger H. Brown, taught me by word and example that the best research is the kind you do for yourself, and he gave me a thirst for uncovering hidden lives in the archives. Once in the archives, I received practical and intelligent encouragement from the curators of the records. I am especially grateful to Hopkinton town clerk Jenarita Aldrich, Jamestown town clerk Teresa Donovan, and Providence city archivist Carole Pace for giving me unencumbered access to their documents. Rick Stattler at the Rhode Island Historical Society Library and Gwenn Stearn and Ken Carlson at the Rhode Island State Archives accommodated my frequent searches for corroborating evidence—sometimes long-distance—with generous and cheerful efficiency. Mandy Marvin tracked down settlement examinations and removal orders in a number of English county records offices to verify the English origins of New England practice.

Many colleagues gave their time and thought to this project. Thomas Barden, Joanna B. Gillespie, James Herndon, John E. Murray, Kunal Parker, Alden V. Rollins, Bernard Rosenthal, Nikki Taylor, Stephanie G. Wolf, and Karin A. Wulf read and critiqued entire drafts of the introduction and several narratives. Fred Anderson, Mary S. Bilder, Colin G. Calloway, Cornelia Hughes Dayton, Russell G. Handsman, Ann M. Keppel, Gloria Main, Bruce Mann, Joanne P. Melish, Alice Nash, Jean M. O’Brien, Ann Marie Plane, Paul B. Robinson, Patricia Rubertone, Sharon V. Salinger, Ella Wilcox Sekatau, and Holly Snyder read and advised on particular narratives. Billy G. Smith and an anonymous reader with University of Pennsylvania Press read several drafts of the entire manuscript with great care and made valuable suggestions that helped bring the book to its present shape. Billy Smith’s eleventh-hour assistance in the last stages of writing was a model of collegial generosity.

This book would never have happened without the valiant friendship of Monique Bourque and Susan E. Klepp, who midwived the project from its inception. They read all the original testimonies and then labored with me to select the “best” 300, then 150, then 40. With each permutation of the manuscript, they suggested effective ways to organize and present the narratives. Having seen the book on its way to birthing, Susan Klepp then gave it its title, “Unwelcome Americans.”

I also thank Richard Dunn who, as director of the McNeil Center for Early American Studies, saw the potential in the warning-out records and gave this project its first public hearing at the McNeil Center seminar in September 1995. He continued to nurture the manuscript through several gawky phases until it grew to its present form, gave it its subtitle, and championed its publication with University of Pennsylvania Press.

Capable colleagues smoothed the mechanics of book production. Edward J. Keen used his cartography skills to produce the Rhode Island map outline. Jennifer Bond, assistant graphics curator at the Rhode Island Historical Society, organized the bulk of the document illustrations. Robert E. Lockhart skillfully coordinated the publication team at University of Pennsylvania Press.

Family members and friends made a critical difference at key moments in the research and writing of this book. They know who they are and I thank them all. Wilber and Marie Wallis especially will be gratified to see it in print. I dedicate this book to Karen Schmidt Wagner, who loved a good story and lived a great one herself before her last chapter drew to a close much too soon.