The splendid essays in Slavery and Freedom in the Bluegrass State are most timely as we ponder how to remedy the racial injustices, misuses of history, and myths identified with the song 'My Old Kentucky Home.' Focusing on the racial tensions that have long plagued interactions between Blacks and Whites in Kentucky and in the nation at large, this collection is a heartfelt manifesto, a reckoning, for truth and respect in race relations and in history. Collectively the contributions offer a beacon of hope and change for racial equality in deed as well as in word.
~John David Smith, coeditor of The Long Civil War: New Explorations of America's Enduring Conflict
The contributors to this volume seek to recover the experiences of enslaved Kentuckians and their descendants—many of which have been erased, deliberately obscured, or sometimes even literally paved over in today's memorial landscape—and to place them at the center of the state's history. The result is an innovative, imaginative, and important book chronicling the struggles and achievements of Kentucky African Americans over two centuries.
~Anne E. Marshall, author of Creating a Confederate Kentucky: The Lost Cause and Civil War Memory in a Border State
Slavery and Freedom in the Bluegrass State: Revisiting My Old Kentucky Home is history that matters. Smith's collection of superb scholarship on slavery, freedom, and civil rights is a crucial consideration of Black Kentuckians' centrality in shaping the history of the Bluegrass. It is an essential chronicle of Black life and humanity.
~Luther Adams – Free Man of Color, author of Way Up North in Louisville
Smith's scholarly compilation of melting pot–like perspectives on Kentucky's almost sacred-like state song tosses aside its shibboleths and casts more illuminating light on the song's contentious interpretations. A bodacious work.
~William H. Turner, author of The Harlan Renaissance: Stories of Black Life in Appalachian Coal Towns
Over the years, Kentucky's African American experience has been woefully ignored. Through his various works and efforts, Gerald Smith has been changing that narrative, and the contributors to this excellent, pathbreaking volume reflect that same spirit of inquiry, deep research, and fresh insights—from modern-day issues to exposing the false facade in the song 'My Old Kentucky Home.' Here the buried past of Black Kentuckians is reexamined, as old myths are debunked, and new accounts are now told. This work will cause me to revise my own writing, and it should be read by all who are interested in the state's history.
~James C. Klotter, State Historian of Kentucky and author, coauthor, or editor of more than twenty books, including A New History of Kentucky, Second Edition (coauthored with Craig Thompson Friend)
This volume reveals the profound racial limits of 'My Old Kentucky Home' as an iconic song and idea in the minds and hearts of most white Kentuckians and offers fresh new understandings of the ongoing African American fight (both inter- and intra-racial) for citizenship, freedom, and democracy. As such, this book suggests a model for activists, historians, and policy makers seeking a new history that is appropriate for the expanding postindustrial age among the other states of our fragile union.
~Joe William Trotter Jr., author of Pittsburgh and the Urban League Movement: A Century of Social Service and Activism
Smith and his colleagues challenge myths about race relations in that border state. Many of the Black men and women explored in these essays will be new to readers, but their stories illuminate a record of heroic resistance to racism that is overlooked in most previous histories of Kentucky. Smith reminds readers that, regarding Kentucky's "racial past, the search is ongoing for truth and reconciliation." Unquestionably, this volume has made a worthy contribution to that mission.
~Journal of Southern History
Slavery and Freedom in the Bluegrass State makes a significant contribution to the subject's historiography. By exploring previously overlooked topics it helps broaden our understanding of role Black people played in Kentucky's history despite the many obstacles placed in their way. Additionally, the essays are all well researched and written. While (it) sets a high bar for future studies about the Commonwealth's Black history, it also encourages scholars to seek out other previously under-examined people, events, and topics.
~Emerging Civil War
