The Homeplace : Photographs from Historic African American Hamlets in Kentucky’s Inner Bluegrass Region
In the decade after the Civil War African American settlements sprang up around the horse farms in Kentucky’s six-county Inner Bluegrass Region. These villages, or hamlets, as they have come to be known were originally inhabited by freed slaves who were needed to work on the area farms. Today, many of the residents are descendants of the freed men and women who founded them. In some cases, as many as seven generations of a family have lived in succession on a “homeplace” in these communities. Some of these hamlets are prospering while the existence of others is tenuous.
My project is a tribute to the residents of these hamlets, a salute to the elders who learned of slavery at their grandparent’s knees and endured the Jim Crow south. Who lived ‘separate but equal’ and saw the decade of milestones and their impacts, including desegregation, social segregation, and ultimately the election of Barack Obama. The residents did much more than endure and survive negative circumstances; they rose above them and thrived the fight is far from over in our current political climate.
Sarah Hoskins
www.sarahhoskins.com
Exposition
Eva G. Farris Art Gallery @ Thomas More University
2022 Focus Biennial
October 13 – November 3, 2022
https://www.fotofocus.org/fotofocus-exhibition/the-homeplace-photographs-from-historic-african-american-hamlets-in-kentuckys-inner-bluegrass-region/
