According to historical records Drake found, some enslaved children were forced to bear children at as young as 10 years old. (Giselle Rhoden / LPM)In Hannah Drake’s backyard in South Louisville, wood cutouts painted black stand tall in the grass. Each one is the silhouette of a child, frozen in a state of play. They’re running, tossing a toy on the ground, playing patty-cake with each other.“I want people to really think about what these children could have been,” Drake said. “What do you think they were thinking?” This will be Drake's second art installation at Farmington Historic Home. (Giselle Rhoden / LPM)She said she created the cutouts to represent those who weren’t afforded the opportunity to play: the millions of enslaved children born and raised on plantations across the United States.Drake will unveil her art installation, “Childhood Interrupted,” at the Farmington Historic Home this weekend. She said she hopes her work inspires more conversation about uncomfortable truths in American history.By 1860, of the 3.9 million Africans who were brought to the United States during transatlantic slave trade, more than half were younger than 20, according to the National Archives.Historical records gathered by Farmington staff show its former owner John Speed kept about 70 enslaved, men, women and children on the 550-acre hemp plantation. The property sits about six miles from Bardstown Road in the Hawthorne neighborhood. It was built by enslaved men in 1815 and 1816.Farmington has dozens of records of children — some as young as 2 years old — living on Speed’s property.Drake turned spare plywood from her basement into 19 silhouettes, and said she modeled some after enslaved children at Farmington. Each cutout has a chain attached to its feet.“The reality is they were chained to this land,” Drake said. “And they couldn't just leave when they wanted, and they couldn't play how they really wanted to play. And I think that element shifted this conversation to a much deeper one.”The darkness of the silhouettes represents the lesser-known history of children born into slavery, Drake said.“Often when people talk about enslavement, you will automatically think of two adults,” she said. “And in learning about enslavement…there's still a hierarchy in it…Children are just at the bottom, and often not even spoken about. Often their names aren't recorded, and so I wanted them to be shadows, because it's like they're present, but they're also absent.”The art display is part of larger efforts by the (Un)Known Project, a local nonprofit working to recognize the names and stories of enslaved people in the U.S.Drake, the organization’s co-founder, also created an initiative with other historic homes and plantations in the area, including Oxmoor Farms, Locust Grove and Riverside. Through this collaboration, these locations will add signage to their property with information about the enslaved populations that lived there.Drake expects the sign installations to begin in August.“In light of everything going on in the world, we could stand together and say we're committed to telling the truth,” she said.In March last year, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to remove any language about “divisive, race-centered ideology” in museums and on public monuments. Trump cited “The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture,” a recent exhibition at the Smithsonian American Art Museum Renwick Gallery in D.C., in the order.Recently, the Trump administration asked several national parks to remove exhibits about race, women and immigration from display, according to the New York Times.These moves from the Trump administration inspired Drake to work more with local plantations and historic homes, she said.“This has been going on for centuries, and it's impacting us today,” Drake said. “At what point will we be done going around the same mountain? I could tell you these [wood cutouts] were not enslaved children. I could tell you these were children from Palestine. I could tell you that these were children in a low-income community.”Drake will host a free opening reception at Farmington on Saturday, June 6, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. There will also be an open panel discussion featuring Drake, local author Emily Bingham and historian David Green. Marian Vasser, director of community engagement and belonging at the Louisville Collegiate School, will serve as the moderator.“We want to talk about mothers and parenting,” Drake said. “How do you parent under this umbrella of enslavement? And I really want to focus on things enslaved kids did for play, and their ingenuity.”The gallery is free to access with paid admission to Farmington through June 18. Farmington will have special programming for Juneteenth on June 19. ...read more read less