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TUESDAY, AUGUST 27, 2019 ❚ COURIERJOURNAL.COM PART OF THE USA TODAY NETWORK

Search for ancestry led Senators

to hemp – and slavery build wall
in state
Capitol
Republicans split office
shared with Democrats
Tom Loftus and Ben Tobin
Louisville Courier Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK

FRANKFORT — In an openly parti-

san move, the Republican Senate ma-
jority is building a wall in the State
Capitol Annex so that three of its GOP
members will not have to share an of-
fice suite with minority Democrats.
Senate President Robert Stivers of
Manchester said he authorized the un-
announced work at the request of the
Republicans for more partisan privacy.
“You could be funny and say it’s just
a Republican-Democrat thing. Repub-

See WALL, Page 6A

The family of Glenn Sea is descended from African American slaves who worked fields at the Farmington plantation.
Shown here are Benjamin and Cassandra Sea and young relative Kwaylen Smith. MARTY PEARL/FOR THE COURIER JOURNAL Pension
Research reveals bigger picture of plantation plan debt
Savannah Eadens Louisville Courier Journal | USA TODAY NETWORK may have

S
weat gathered on Cassandra Sea’s forehead as
she walked along a paved path at Farmington
stalled
Historic Plantation on a sweltering July after- Tom Loftus
Louisville Courier Journal
noon. ❚ She stopped at a circular stone open- USA TODAY NETWORK

ing, where a memorial erected at the center stands waist-

high. Her fingers traced the outline of the engravings atop
Restored photos of Martha and
the bronze monument, brushing over the image of two David Spencer, who were enslaved
African Americans — David and Martha Spencer, the at Farmington plantation until
sometime in the 1850s or 1860s.
great-great-great-grandparents of Cassandra’s son, Ben- COURTESY OF CASSANDRA SEA
jamin Sea — a couple once enslaved at the 550-acre hemp
plantation. ❚ Cassandra didn’t break her gaze as she
commented on another striking element of the medal- “I really believe our story is to
lion: two strong hands holding tightly to a piece of rope, show people that you can trace
your family back, that flowing in
twisted from hemp. ❚ “The rope our ancestors were beat everybody’s DNA is a skill, a talent,
with and lynched with was the very thing they (broke) a mindset or work ethic that goes
back generations.”
their backs to help produce,” Cassandra said. “Rope was a
Cassandra Sea
form of control.” See HEMP, Page 11A family researcher
FRANKFORT – The trend that has
seen the state’s worst-funded pension
plan getting deeper in debt each year
may have come to an end.
“Based on everything that we know
at the moment ... we would expect that
plan has bottomed out,” Rich Robben,
executive director of the Office for In-
vestments at Kentucky Retirement
Systems, told an oversight committee
on Monday.
Robben was referring to the KRS
plan that provides retirement benefits
for state workers in nonhazardous jobs
— a plan that reports $13.6 billion in
unfunded liabilities and is considered
to be the worst-funded public pension
plan in America.
See DEBT, Page 8A

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 E1 COURIERJOURNAL.COM ❚ TUESDAY, AUGUST 27, 2019 ❚ 11A

Hemp
Continued from Page 1A

Cassandra spent years trying to au-

thenticate the Sea family’s generations
of oral history with the sparse slave rec-
ords she could find. Then in 2003, she
found David and Martha Spencer.
Since then, she has provided to Far-
mington an archive of documents and
an account of real people’s lives who
were once enslaved there — including
those in her own son’s bloodline. For
her, it’s a connection to the past that
would have otherwise been lost.
“I really believe our story is to show
people that you can trace your family
back, that flowing in everybody’s DNA is
a skill, a talent, a mindset or work ethic
that goes back generations,” she said.
Despite the horrific historical con-
nection, the 64-year-old retired Louis-
ville woman often sits near the monu-
ment at Farmington to read or meditate.
When Cassandra visits, she feels a spiri-
tual connection — in and among the Sea
family’s ancestors, as she likes to say.
Her 38-year-old son, Benjamin, has
inherited her passion for digging into
their bloodline.
Nearly two centuries later, Benjamin
has chosen to plant the same seeds his Kwaylen Smith joins his uncle Benjamin Sea at a memorial marker on the Farmington grounds that honors the enslaved
ancestors were forced to in a new plot of African Americans at the former hemp plantation. PHOTOS BY MARTY PEARL/SPECIAL TO COURIER JOURNAL
hemp on the property — as part of Far-
mington’s initiatives to bring the crop
back to its fields.
“When I planted that hemp, not only
did I want to give honor to my ancestors,
I wanted to plant a seed in getting my
family involved, to teach my children
that skill,” Benjamin said.
“It’s what I call self-reparations.”
The history of hemp in Kentucky
can’t be told without talking about slav-
ery, Benjamin said.
His enslaved ancestors didn’t reap
the financial rewards of Kentucky’s
hemp crop, which was the state’s driv-
ing economic force before the Civil War.
After emancipation, when plantations
like Farmington lost its slave labor force,
the hemp industry was depleted. Ken-
tucky moved on to tobacco.
Now, Benjamin has a chance to be
part of hemp’s rebirth in Kentucky,
where growing hemp with a license has The Seas’ family photos have helped
been legal since 2014 after it was re- connect the dots in their lineage to
moved from the controlled substance Farmington Plantation. COURTESY OF
list. Among supporters of the state’s Benjamin Sea and his nephew Kwaylen Smith at the Farmington plantation. CASSANDRA SEA
thriving hemp resurgence, and the na-
tional 2018 Farm Bill, is Senate Majority
Leader Mitch McConnell. of the Seas’ in the 1970s. children. One was Herbert Spencer. like on Goffner Lane,” he said of the
“The hemp industry was carved away “The Seas have changed Farmington Herbert had Willie Mae Spencer, who Newburg home. “I knew who my great-
from us, and I want to take it back,” Ben- because we now have real information married Theodore Titus. Willie Mae and grandfather was. I saw him through a
jamin said. from a real family that was enslaved Theodore Titus had Anna Titus, who child’s eyes. He was my protector.
For Benjamin and Cassandra, it’s here,” Nichols said. “The biggest hurdle married Thomas Sea. Anna and Thomas “He would pick me up on his shoul-
about genetic inheritance. we have here is encouraging African Sea had Glenn Sea, who died in Septem- ders. He had an old surplus Army truck
“It makes me wonder, what was in Americans to get involved and help us ber 2018. After leaving Farmington, the in his barn that I would play in all the
(my ancestors) that is in me right now?” interpret their history.” Spencers settled in what’s now the time. ... I accidentally got it started one
he said. “... This is why when I learn Nichols said as Kentucky once again neighborhood of Newburg, home to day and it crashed through the wood
about what these people went through, embraces hemp, it also needs to ac- generations of descendants of African barn. But grandpa protected me from
it makes me feel like I can take on that knowledge its connections to the labor American slaves. getting in trouble.”
character and survive anything.” force that built the industry. In order to Glenn and Cassandra both went to Herbert Spencer was a contractor
tell a complete story at Farmington, they Newburg Elementary School. But their who built homes all over Newburg. The
A shifting narrative need as many perspectives as they can lives didn’t cross until they met and plaster had a special component to hold
find — and Cassandra and Benjamin’s married in 1979. the bricks together, a technique Herbert
Tucked at the end of a narrow, tree- efforts have been instrumental in build- The couple raised five children in would’ve learned from his father: hemp.
lined drive at Bardstown Road near the ing a new chapter for the plantation. Worthington Hills, including Benjamin, That hemp-made mortar, Benjamin
Watterson Expressway, Farmington was “The Seas understand how impor- a former Air Force airman and contrac- said, is another example of his ances-
once a 550-acre hemp plantation, tant it is for people to know their heri- tor. tors’ resilience.
owned by the Speeds — one of Kentuck- tage, to know where you came from and “We just found these pictures,” Cas- “Under the most extreme pressures,
y’s oldest and most prominent families. know where you can go,” Nichols said. sandra said. “We looked everywhere af- my great-great-grandfathers were able
Between 50 and 70 slaves were held “And that’s what we want children to ter Glenn’s mother, Anna Sea, passed to go inside themselves and take out a
at Farmington, some harvesting hemp come away from here with — a sense of away last year.” gift that was being exploited,” Benjamin
and weaving it into rope, cloth, paper pride in their history.” There’s one from the early 1900s of said. “In the midst of that exploitation,
and twine bins for baling cotton across Willie Mae when she was 4 years old they were able to take their skills and
the deep south. The family’s search with her siblings and the family dog. benefit from them.”
When visitors came to the plot of And another of David and Martha Spen-
land 25 years ago, they were welcomed It was Father’s Day 2003 when Cas- cer — faded sepia images damaged over History in the soil
to Farmington Historic “Home” — not sandra’s late husband, Glenn Sea, stood time.
“Plantation,” said Kathy Nichols, exec- up in a Sunday church service to talk Benjamin pulled out death certifi- On a muggy day in June, Benjamin
utive director. about fatherhood and the importance of cates and census records with faded arrived at a plot of land behind Farming-
“You would’ve seen a beautiful prop- family in the black community. Glenn — cursive handwriting, almost illegible. ton’s historic home and its illustrious
erty and been talked to about all the chi- a 34-year GE employee and mayor of “This is the kind of information that garden. With advocacy group the Ken-
na and furniture and what a lovely life Worthington Hills from 2011 until his you have to dig through,” he said. tucky Hempsters, Benjamin was the
the Speeds had,” Nichols said. “Yes, that death in 2018 — mentioned that his fam- Cassandra found maps from 1879 in a first person to drop hemp seeds into the
happened at Farmington, but that hap- ily descended from slaves at Farming- Jefferson County archive that show the tilled soil along the first row of the new
pened at Farmington because of all ton Plantation. old home in Newburg — a neighborhood 20-by-15-foot plot.
these other people who enabled this ex- It was a story Cassandra had never that through the 20th century became a Soil between his fingers made Benja-
tremely elegant lifestyle.” heard. thriving ecosystem of black families, min feel spiritually connected to the
For years, Farmington struggled to Since that day, she’s been on a relent- farms and businesses — where David same earth where his ancestors planted
interpret its slave history. Visitors were less hunt to connect the dots in her hus- and Martha Spencer settled after they hemp generations before.
greeted with the story of Abraham Lin- band’s lineage. were freed or released from Farmington. Six weeks later, he came back to
coln’s friendship with the Speed family As with many African Americans, All of these documents link the Seas check on the crop. He knelt by a row of
and his visit to the plantation in 1841. tracing genealogy proved challenging. to a history they can now prove but don’t small, green sprouts.
For years, the slave narrative at Far- She deciphered the sparse slave records remember. But Bill Titus, a cousin, is “Within my blood, that hemp history
mington relied on the accounts of the that exist in Kentucky, kept haphazardly one of two family members who does was rich, so it was an honor to be in-
white men who held them in bondage. in more of a grocery list rather than a remember. His recollections remind volved in the planting of this hemp,” he
An exhibit in the 1990s portrayed patri- proper census. She dug through census Cassandra and Benjamin that slavery said. “Not only to gain the knowledge
arch John Speed as a kind slave owner data, microfiche and withered family wasn’t so far in the past. but to show my ancestors that I see
and Farmington as a place where slaves photos. And she walked rows of ceme- Bill, now 64, was 5 when his great- them and I respect their experience.”
would never want to leave — and if they teries all over Jefferson County. grandfather — Herbert Spencer — died. Like his parents before him, Benja-
left, John Speed wouldn’t go after them. Today, Cassandra is the keeper of Herbert was the son of David and Mar- min doesn’t want to hide the story of
“Kentucky slaveholders at the time that history, of the connection between tha Spencer, the link that connects the slavery from his 7-year-old son, Sekou.
perpetuated the myth that it was better her family and slavery at Farmington. entire family to Farmington Plantation. At Farmington, he points to the home
to be a slave in Kentucky than anywhere She remembers maiden names and Bill didn’t think of his grandfather as where Martha Spencer cooked for the
else,” Nichols said. married names, those who died young, the son of slaves. He remembers the un- Speeds, to the outposts of land where
The public’s reaction to the out-of- how many children they had and where documented, word-of-mouth, unsung David Spencer planted hemp. He ex-
touch exhibit nearly ended Farmington the families settled in Louisville. She legacy of his grandparents. He remem- plains to Sekou that grandpa Glenn’s
as a historic, nonprofit site. memorized all the offspring. bers growing up in Herbert Spencer’s great-great-grandparents lived and
If it wasn’t for Cassandra’s digging, In a large folder filled with docu- home in Newburg in the 1950s, where worked here.
said Nichols, Farmington wouldn’t have ments and photos, Cassandra pointed there was no indoor plumbing, where “Sekou doesn’t walk around with
the context or tangible connection to to the lineage that took years to uncover: they ate food grown in Herbert’s garden shame or ignorance about our history,”
David and Martha Spencer, now en- David and Martha Spencer, two head and drank water from the wells. Benjamin said. “Our goal is for him to
graved on the medallion, after a picture slaves at Farmington, had about a 20- “I don’t know what life was like at speak about it with pride, honor and un-
was given to the plantation by a cousin year age difference and as many as 12 Farmington, but I know what life was derstanding.”