Max Grivno, St. Olaf class of 1997, received his Ph. D. in American history from the University of Maryland.  His first book, Gleanings of Freedom, is a study of slavery in wheat cultivation on the borderland of freedom, along the Mason-Dixon line, in northern Maryland.

The argument is that masters had to make concessions to slaves, often offering them freedom to prevent them from attempting to run away, and that this colored the whole character of slavery.  Grivno is currently Associate Professor of History at the University of Southern Mississippi.