Research

In addition to my interest in transplanted Asian religions, I am engaged in research and study about American abolitionism.  I am interested in that division of the abolitionist movement that has been called “evangelical abolitionism” which was a reformist tradition that sought to move the United States from its history of slavery into a fully integrated nation.  Evangelical abolitionist movements were among the earliest expressions of what later became identified as the Civil Rights movement.

My article that developed from these interests, ”Architects of a Benevolent Empire: Origins of the Relationship Between the Ameican Misionary Association and the freedman’s Bureau in Virginia (1865-1872)” was published in The Freedmen’s Bureau: Reconsiderations by Fordham University Press in 1999.  The book has been recommended by Pulitzer Prize winner and scholar of American history, James McPherson.

I am also at work on a biography of abolitionist Michael Strieby, who became executive secretary of the American Missionary Association in 1876.  The Association was responsible for the construction of schools for African American children throughout the South during the Civil War.  It also created a variety of historically black colleges, many of which continue today.

In addition to these interests I have written several articles on antique watches which I collect and restore.