Lake Cumberland Slaves Memorial

About the Artwork

The artwork will be a fabricated monumental metal sculpture to commemorate the resting place of enslaved persons from the Lake Cumberland area. The sculpture will be fabricated from stainless steel and stand twenty feet tall.

The physical form of this linear sculpture is inspired by ancient African decorative boat paddle designs. Mounted at the top of the paddle is a likeness of a bird in a bowl shaped vessel. The bird represents the west African Sankofa, portrayed with the head looking back over the body, which symbolizes and validates community or individual efforts to go back and reclaim ones’ culture and history. Here it is used to recognize and applaud efforts of the Somerset community in identifying historical relevance to eternal resting places of enslaved persons.

The paddle symbolizes water, an important element in the spiritual belief system of African peoples. In many African spiritual systems, water was associated with the creation of life and the phenomena of death. In addition, water was the medium for the transition from the world of the living to the realm of the dead. Crossing a body of water in a boat using a paddle was believed to be part of the deceased’s journey to the next life.

The bowl shaped vessel at the top of the paddle is designed to catch water. Through an internal tube, water will flow down the interior of the paddle and flow over the base of the sculpture, where names of enslaved persons are engraved.

Four cut-out negative spaces on each side of the paddle and one at the bottom reference the number nine. Symbolically, the number nine is associated with death and the world of “The Ancestors” in traditional African spiritual belief systems.

The sculpture will be mounted on a circular concrete base. The circle is a universal symbol for the continuation of life from past to present to the future.