Painting Titled "Covenants in the Lands of Beginnings"

This color painting by artist Sharon Hill depicts a Black woman standing outside in a rural setting, with a child in a sling on her back. She is shown facing the viewer and smiling. In the background are rolling hills and trees. 

The painting depicts one of the enslaved people freed by Marium P. Alston of Chatham County, North Carolina. According to the article “Marium P. Alston and the Alston Freed Slaves” by Steven E. Brooks and Beverly B. Wiggins, Alston contested the will of her husband, and in her own will directed her executor, Jesse Marley, to transport the people enslaved by her family to “some free state” where they would be legally emancipated. Twenty-eight enslaved people were taken by her executor’s son to Westerville, Ohio, and emancipated.

An artist living in Chatham County, North Carolina, Hill completed this and another painting, “Bestower of the Road to Dreaming” for a commission from the Chatham County Arts Council to highlight the lives of people who have made a difference in the lives of others. A Worthington native, Hill graduated from Worthington High School and The Ohio State University.