Ancestors of the author go back into Georgia in the late 1700's and early 1800's. Descendants lived mostly in Georgia but some moved to other places including Florida.

The Piedmont area of Loudoun and Fauquier Counties, Virginia, near the Maryland border, was hotly contested throughout the Civil War. The mistress of a slave-holding estate, Ida Powell Dulany took over control of the extensive family lands once her husband left to fight for the Confederacy. She struggled to manage slaves, maintain contact with her neighbors, and keep up her morale after her region was abandoned by the Confederate government soon after the beginning of hostilities.

Provides current coverage of a broad range of individuals from across the South and Southwest Includes approximately 17,500 names from the region embracing Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. Because of its importance and its contiguity to the southwestern United States, Mexico is also covered in this volume.

How did descriptions of individuals' appearance reinforce emergent categories of race? In Colonial Complexions, more than 4000 advertisements for runaway slaves and servants reveal how colonists transformed seemingly observable characteristics into racist reality.