Judith C. Owens-Lalude

Judith C. Owens-Lalude is the great-granddaughter of George Henry “Pap” Johnson, born in 1850, who was enslaved with Clarissa, his mother. They lived on Ben Miller’s 600-acre farm in Spence County Kentucky, southeast of Louisville, Kentucky where Owens-Lalude grew up. After listening to tales relayed by her closest family members, she wanted to know more and visited the farm where they had been enslaved. She strolled the grounds, reflected at the fireplace hearth where a slave cabin once stood, wandered along the streams and creeks, and photographed the outstructures that were once part of her family’s daily world. She was inspired to write The Long Walk: Slavery to Freedom. Her readers wanted a sequel and so, Owens-Lalude wrote BLOODY TRAILS: ENSLAVEMENT & FREEDOM. She frequently referenced the lives Issac Johnson who wrote, “Slavery Days in Old Kentucky” and Harry Smith, who wrote, “Fifty Years in Slavery in the United States” both authors were enslaved in Jefferson, Nelson, and Spencer counties Kentucky, where Owens-Lalude’s family was also enslaved and later lived as freed people.