Bobtown, also known as Joe Lick, is a rural

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

outside Berea, Madison County,

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

, United States. Founded around 1769, since the mid-19th century it has been a predominantly

African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...

community. It is located 12 miles south of

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, a city in the United States * Richmond, London, a town in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town ...

, Kentucky, and roughly 5 miles northeast of the city center of Berea, Kentucky; and is near Farristown and Middletown, two other African American communities.

History

It was founded c. 1769 as Joe Lick, or Joe's Lick Knob, and is said to be named after an early settler who had carved his name on a stone fence. One of the first houses was built for Capt. Phillipps in the early 1800s, on the Berea and Kingston Road. Starting in 1865 after the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

, African Americans were allowed to purchase land and settled in this area. In 1872, the settlement was renamed Bobtown in honor of "Uncle Bob" Fitch, a long-time African-American resident. The community was tied together as a community by the formation of the New Liberty Baptist Church (1866), and with schools, and stores. Rev. Matthew Campbell (1823–1896) founded the New Liberty Baptist Church in 1866; and Rev. Thomas H. Broaddus was the pastor for many years in Bobtown and for the surrounding towns. In the early history of the community they had separate White and Black elementary schools. In the 1930s with a merger of schools, the Black students were bussed to the Middletown Consolidated School and Richmond High School; and White students attended schools in Kingston. The railroad industry and farming industry were the largest employers in the early history. Pigs, cattle, and tobacco were farmed locally.

References

{{Authority control 1769 establishments in North America Madison County, Kentucky Cities in Madison County, Kentucky Populated places in Kentucky established by African Americans