He is completing two books: “Strike the Blow: Romantic Reformers and the Fight against Slavery in the Civil War Era” and, along with co-author Blain Roberts, “Struggling with Slavery in the Cradle of the Confederacy: Memory and the ‘Peculiar Institution’ in Charleston, South Carolina.” An expanded and fully cited version of this essay appeared in the September 2012 issue of the Journal of the Historical Society.