Borderlands I

In this first part of a two-part episode, we speak with Bridget Striker, the Director of the Boone County Borderlands Archive and History Center at the Boone County Public Library in Burlington, KY.  An anthropologist and librarian by training, Bridget brings her expertise in archaeology, mapping, and historic preservation into her work on Boone County’s complex history.  Bridget discusses the ancestors of Sarah’s husband, John James Piatt, who were among the white settlers granted large tracts of land along the Ohio River for Revolutionary War service, and she situates them in social networks and enslavement practices of this place and time.

Interview date: 13 March 2023

Borderlands II

In this second part of a two-part episode, we continue our conversation with Bridget Striker, the Director of the Boone County Borderlands Archive and History Center at the Boone County Public Library in Burlington, KY.  An anthropologist and librarian by training, Bridget brings her expertise in archaeology, mapping, and historic preservation into her work on Boone County’s complex history.  Bridget discusses enslavement practices in Boone County, Kentucky; the Kentucky relatives of Sarah’s husband John James Piatt who were enslavers; the existing documentation about the people the Kentucky Piatts enslaved and their efforts to seek their freedom; and the complexities of the lives of enslaved people, especially in the borderlands region of Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana.

Interview date: 14 March 2023