The Homeplace

The Homeplace: Photographs Of Historic African American Hamlets In Kentucky's Inner Bluegrass Region

The Homeplace; is a visual record of people and place in a changing American landscape. In the decade after the Civil War over forty small African American settlements sprang up around the horse farms in Kentucky’s 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 area farms. Today many of these hamlets still exist and the residents are descendents of the freed men and women who founded them. In some cases as many as six 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. With each visit I make I am continually told of people and places where "You need to go."There are many things these hamlets share; agriculture, religion, joy, hardship, friends and relatives, but most importantly they share a great and deep human history.

The following quote of mine appeared in American Legacy magazine just months before Katrina hit New Orleans. It has been circulated nationally and internationally.

"African American history has been so neglected in this country in writing and photography. The United States as a society just hasn't cared enough, and a lot of African American history has been literally bulldozed over. I’m hoping my photographs will help show that we've got to hurry before it’s just too late."

Sarah Hoskins