Frankie Steele | courtesy of The Voice-Tribune

Farmington hosts numerous historical re-enactments throughout the year. Costumed Interpreters depict the Speed family, Abraham Lincoln, and the nearly sixty enslaved African-Americans that lived and labored on the plantation. Re-enactments are designed for the entire family to experience history, not just be by-standers. The performances do explore complicated and tangled issues such as slavery, the Civil War, politics of the period, gender roles, etc. Farmington aspires to provide the most accurate, sensitive and honest portrayals of life on the plantation.

Some of the most frequent performers are: Erma Bush (who portrays two enslaved African-American women: Dinnie Thompson and Phyllis Thurston (Both whom were owned by the Speed family) as well as her Chautauqua character Margaret Garner (who is not affiliated with Farmington), Larry Elliott (Abraham Lincoln), Kenneth Miller (plantation owner and patriarch, John Speed), and Jean Anne Martin (Lucy Speed).

Most recently, Kentucky Chautauqua character Margaret Garner, portrayed by Erma Bush, performed a powerful vignette about the painful true story behind Margaret Garner, an enslaved woman who, rather than see her baby grow up in the institution of slavery, actually murdered her child. The performance was sponsored by the Kentucky Humanities Council and was part of the program: Faces of Slavery.