Climbing Up to Glory by Wilbert L. Jenkins

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
    THE FIRST OPPORTUNITY to discuss this work took place in April 1991 at West Virginia University as part of the Sojourner Truth-Nelson Mandela Colloquium series, when I presented it to both graduate and undergraduate students as well as to colleagues. Their comments and suggestions proved helpful. I was also invited by Donald West and Curtis Franks of the Avery Research Center for African-American History and Culture at the College of Charleston to present my work there in July 1993 to a large audience, and was again invited in November 1998 by W. Marvin Dulaney, the director of the Avery Research Center. Finally, I was given the opportunity to discuss my ideas at the faculty colloquium in the History Department at Temple University in February 2000. The idea to invite me originated with Kathleen Uno, a colleague of mine in the History Department. I would like to thank all of those whose suggestions contributed toward making this a better and more complete piece of scholarship.
    Numerous individuals have supported this work, both directly and indirectly. Colleagues at Temple University and at other colleges and universities read and commented on several book chapters. In this regard, I would like to thank Dieu Nguyen, Peter Gran, Kenneth Kusmer, Susan Klepp, and Russell Weigley, all of Temple. In addition, thanks are extended to Joe Trotter of Carnegie-Mellon University, Peter Wood of Duke University, and Edmund Drago of the College of Charleston. I owe a debt of gratitude to Craig Stutman, one of my doctoral students, for critiquing the manuscript and making invaluable suggestions. A number of good friends who cheered me on over the years did not actually read the manuscript but might as well have done so, considering the dividends I have reaped through discussions of their work and my own. Many more people fall into this class than I can mention by name, but I wish to call attention to a few of them: Philip Evanson, Bettye Collier-Thomas, Frank Thornton, Wilbert Roget, Teshale Tibebu, and Nathaniel Norment, all of Temple University; Joseph Windham of Northern Virginia Community College; Walter Hill of the National Archives; Jo Dohoney of Samford University; and James McLaughlin and Larry Little of Winston-Salem State University. I also owe debts of gratitude to colleagues who kept an eye out for materials relevant to my research. Lenwood Davis of Winston-Salem State University provided valuable material on black colleges and universities, and Gregory Urwin of Temple University shared two of his very helpful articles on the Poison Spring massacre. In addition, Professor Urwin shared invaluable materials with me pertaining to the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, the most famous African-American regiment during the Civil War.
    Others also assisted in beneficial ways. Stephen Massengill and Earl Ijames of the Department of North Carolina Resources and Archives went above and beyond the call of duty in locating excellent illustrations. Comments made by several of my students on a range of scholarly themes in the graduate course on the Civil War and Reconstruction which I taught in Fall 1999 benefited the final product, and I would like to extend my appreciation to Leah Alter, Jennifer Fry, Latasha Long, Bertha Adams, Anne Harney, Margaret Markmann, and Jennifer Lawrence. As they did for my first book, Rhonda Johnson, Patricia Williams, and Joanne Follmer of the History Department staff at Temple University offered much-needed moral support. Rhonda also typed earlier book chapters. Many thanks are also extended to Deborah Stuart, who with a sharp eye edited earlier book chapters. Pebbles Murrell-Farrah and Yvette Gibson typed earlier chapters, and Belinda Wilson-Hagins graciously typed the final manuscript. Their professionalism is exemplary. Harold E. Whipple of Saint Augustine’s College was trusting enough to place in my possession pictures of Saint Augustine’s College that were the only