View source for Lucy Terry

{{short description|American poet}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Lucy Terry
| image = Commemorative plaque Abijah and Lucy Terry Prince Guilford Welcome Center Interstate 91 N MM 5.4 Guilford VT October 2024 02.jpg
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| birth_date = c. 1733
| birth_place = Africa
| death_date = {{Death year and age|1821|1733}}
| death_place = [[Sunderland, Vermont]]
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| children = 6
| spouse = {{marriage |Abijah Prince |1756 |1794|end=died}}
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}}
'''Lucy Terry Prince''', often credited as simply '''Lucy Terry''' (c. 1733–1821), was an American settler and poet. [[Atlantic slave trade|Kidnapped in Africa]] and [[Slavery in the United States|enslaved]], she was taken to the British colony of [[Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations|Rhode Island]]. Her future husband [[Manumission|purchased her freedom]] before their marriage in 1756. She composed a [[Ballad (poetry)|ballad poem]], "[[Bars Fight]]", about a 1746 incident in which two white families were attacked by [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]]. It was preserved orally until it was published in 1855. It is considered the oldest known work of literature by an [[African American]].
==Early life==
Terry was born in c. 1733 on the African continent. She was abducted from there and sold into [[slavery]] in [[Rhode Island]] as an infant in about 1733.<ref name=Busby>[[Margaret Busby]] (ed.), "Lucy Terry", ''[[Daughters of Africa]]'', London: Jonathan Cape, 1992, pp. 16–17.</ref><ref name= norton2014>{{cite book|editor1-last=Gates|editor1-first=Henry Louis|editor-link1=Henry Louis Gates, Jr.|title=The Norton Anthology of African American Literature|year=2014|publisher=W. W. Norton & Company|location=New York|page=111|editor2=Valerie A. Smith}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Warren |first=Wendy |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/987209708 |title=New England bound : slavery and colonization in early America |date=2017 |isbn=978-1-63149-324-9 |location=New York |oclc=987209708}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Newell |first=Margaret Ellen |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/950929510 |title=Brethren by nature : New England Indians, colonists, and the origins of American slavery |date=2016 |isbn=978-1-5017-0573-1 |location=Ithaca |oclc=950929510}}</ref> She lived in Rhode Island until the age of five, when she was [[Slave trade in the United States|sold]] to Ebenezer Wells of [[Deerfield, Massachusetts]], who allowed the five-year-old Terry to be baptized into the [[Christianity|Christian]] faith during the [[First Great Awakening|Great Awakening]].
In 1756, Lucy married Abijah Prince, a successful [[free Black]] man from [[Curaçao]], who had purchased her freedom. They were married by justice of the peace Elijah Williams. In 1764, the Princes settled in [[Guilford, Vermont]], where all six children were born. They were Tatnai, Cesar, Drucilla, Durexa, Abijah Jr., and Festus. Cesar fought in the [[American Revolutionary War]].
==Poetry==
Terry's work "[[Bars Fight]]",<ref name=Busby /> composed in 1746,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/united-states-and-canada/us-history/literature|title=Literature &#124; Encyclopedia.com|website=www.encyclopedia.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.alamo.edu/sac/english/bailey/lterry.htm |title=Lucy Terry's " Bars Fight. " Text from San Antonio College LitWeb |publisher=Alamo.edu |access-date=June 29, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719135231/http://www.alamo.edu/sac/english/bailey/lterry.htm |archive-date=July 19, 2011 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all }}</ref> is a [[ballad]] about an attack upon two white families by [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]] on August 25, 1746. This poem is part of the American [[captivity narrative]] genre.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Derounian-Stodola |first=Kathryn Zabelle |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/39199784 |title=The Indian captivity narrative, 1550-1900 |date=1997 |publisher=Twayne |others=James Levernier |isbn=0-8057-1623-8 |location=New York |oclc=39199784}}</ref> The attack occurred in an area of Deerfield called "The Bars", which was a colonial term for a meadow.<ref>{{cite book|title=Phillis Wheatley, Complete Writings|year=2001|publisher=Penguin|location=New York|isbn=9780140424300|page=199|editor=Vincent Carretta}}</ref>  The poem was preserved [[Oral literature|orally]] until 1855, when it was published in [[Josiah Gilbert Holland]]'s ''History of Western Massachusetts''.<ref name=Busby /><ref name="Holland1855">{{cite book|last=Holland|first=Josiah Gilbert|author-link=Josiah Gilbert Holland|title=History of Western Massachusetts: The Counties of Hampden, Hampshire, Franklin, and Berkshire. Embracing an Outline Aspects and Leading Interests, and Separate Histories of Its One Hundred Towns|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LAzOp9_Ky_oC&q=%22bars+fight%22&pg=PA360|volume=II|year=1855|publisher=Samuel Bowles and Co.|location=Springfield, MA|page=360}}</ref>  This poem is the only surviving work by Terry. However, she was famous in her own time for her "rhymes and stories".<ref>Huse, Ann A. "Beyond "The Bars": Lucy Terry Prince and the Margins of the Colonial Landscape." Liminality, Hybridity, and American Women's Literature. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, 2018. p.43.</ref>
Terry's work is considered the oldest known work of [[literature]] by an [[African American]],<ref name=Busby /> though [[Phillis Wheatley]]'s, ''[[Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral]]'', printed in 1773, was the first published work by an African American.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Gates|first1=Henry Louis|title=The Trials of Phillis Wheatley: America's First Black Poet and Her Encounters with the Founding Fathers|publisher=Basic Civitas Books|date=2003}}</ref>
==Farm sabotage and oral arguments==
Lucy Terry Prince and Abijah Prince became prominent and prosperous [[smallholder]]s in [[Guilford, Vermont]] but were eventually ruined by a dispute started by their neighbor John Noyes, a [[Connecticut]] man from a slaveholding family, who referred to Lucy's husband as "Abijah Negro."<ref name="gerz"/>{{rp|148}} Noyes and various men he had hired damaged the Princes' farm and filed frivolous lawsuits against them. The Princes won every lawsuit but failed to end the feud. After a particularly fateful incident, the Princes retained the services of [[Samuel Knight (judge)|Samuel Knight]], a prominent [[jurist]] of the era.<ref name="gerz"/>{{rp|153}} In 1785, Lucy successfully pled her case before the [[Governor of Vermont]], who found that she had been "much injured" by the Noyes who were "greatly oppressing" her and her husband.<ref name="gerz"/>{{rp|155}}  Soon afterward, a mob assembled by Noyes invaded the Princes' farm in the middle of the night, beat a black farmhand nearly to death, burned crops, and left the household in ruins. The state of Vermont prosecuted the mob and sentenced them to prison.<ref name="gerz"/>{{rp|158–160}} Noyes bailed out his henchmen, was not himself prosecuted, and served as a [[Vermont state legislature|state legislator]] in Vermont for over a decade.<ref name="gerz"/>{{rp|167}}
In 1803, Lucy, now destitute, returned to the [[Vermont Supreme Court]] to argue on behalf of her sons against false [[land claim|land claims]] made against them by Colonel Eli Brownson. She was awarded a sum of $200.<ref name="gerz"/>{{rp|184}} She was the first woman to argue before the high court,<ref>{{cite book|last=Wertheimer|first=Barbara M.|author-link=Barbara Wertheimer|title=We Were There: The story of working women in America|year=1977|publisher=Pantheon Books|location=New York, NY|pages=[https://archive.org/details/wewerethere00barb/page/35 35]–36|url=https://archive.org/details/wewerethere00barb|url-access=registration}}</ref> holding her own against two of the leading lawyers in the state, one of whom later became Chief Justice.<ref>{{cite book|last=Smith|first=Jessie Carney|title=Black firsts: 2,000 years of extraordinary achievement|year=1994|publisher=Gale Research|location=Detroit, MI|page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780810389021/page/417 417]|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780810389021|url-access=registration}}</ref>
In 1806, after months of petitioning, Lucy convinced the town selectmen of [[Sunderland, Vermont]] to purchase an additional $200 (~${{Format price|{{Inflation|index=US|value=200|start_year=1806}}}} in {{Inflation/year|US}}) of land from Brownson for her use, to provide for her family.<ref name="gerz"/>{{rp|188}}
Lucy reportedly delivered a three-hour address to the board of trustees of [[Williams College]] while trying to gain admittance for her son Festus. She was unsuccessful, and Festus was reportedly denied entry on account of the school's [[School segregation in the United States|racist admission policies]].<ref>{{Cite book|title = Negro slavery in old Deerfield|last = Sheldon|first= George|year = 1893|location = Boston, Mass|pages = 57|hdl = 2027/uc1.31175035177206?urlappend=%3Bseq=9|url = http://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.31175035177206?urlappend=%3Bseq=9}}</ref><ref name= norton2014/> This oral history was recorded at the time of Lucy's death by a resident, who also reported that Lucy remained popular in her hometown until her old age and that young boys would often come to her home to hear her talk.<ref name="gerz"/>{{rp|205}}
== Death ==
Prince's husband died in 1794. By 1803, Prince had moved to nearby [[Sunderland, Vermont|Sunderland]]. She rode on horseback annually to visit her husband's grave until she died in 1821.
The following obituary was published for Prince on Tuesday, August 21, 1821, in the [[Greenfield, Massachusetts]], paper ''The Frankylin Herald'':
<blockquote>At Sunderland, Vt., July 11th, Mrs. Lucy Prince, a woman of colour. From the church and town records where she formerly resided, we learn that she was brought from Bristol, Rhode Island, to Deerfield, Mass. when she was four years old, by Mr. Ebenezer Wells: that she was 97 years of age—that she was early devoted to God in Baptism: that she united with the church in Deerfield in 1744—Was married to Abijah Prince, May 17th, 1756, by Elijah Williams, Esq. and that she had been the mother of six children. In this remarkable woman there was an assemblage of qualities rarely to be found among her sex. Her volubility was exceeded by none, and in general, the fluency of her speech was not destitute of instruction and education. She was much respected among her acquaintances, who treated her with deference.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1118&context=cibs |newspaper=The Franklin Herald |location=Greenfield, MA|date=August 21, 1821 |title=Lucy Terry Prince: "Singer of History" |access-date=23 February 2014}}</ref>
</blockquote>
The Prince family was remembered in Guilford for many decades after their death. John Noyes' daughter was once startled off a horse by the sight of their ghosts, and ghost sightings on their farm have been reported even into the 21st century.<ref name="gerz"/>{{rp|166}}
==Historical record==
Only a single letter in Abijah's handwriting and none in Lucy's has survived. Because the shopkeeper's records show that the household sometimes purchased paper, it is suspected that Lucy wrote other literary works, which were eventually lost during the attacks on her household and declining fortune.<ref name="gerz">[[Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina|Gerzina, Gretchen Holbrook]] (2008). ''Mr. and Mrs. Prince: How an Extraordinary Eighteenth-Century Family Moved Out of Slavery and Into Legend''. Amistad. {{ISBN|0-06-051073-0}}. {{ISBN|978-0-06-051073-2}}.</ref>{{rp|80}}
==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}
==Further reading==
* [[Ann Allen Shockley|Shockley, Ann Allen]] (1989). ''Afro-American Women Writers 1746-1933: An Anthology and Critical Guide''. New Haven, Connecticut: Meridian Books. {{ISBN|0-452-00981-2}}.
* {{cite journal|last=Bennett, Jr.|first=Lerone|author-link=Lerone Bennett|title=No Crystal Stair: The Black Woman in History|journal=Ebony|date=August 1977|pages=164–170}}
==External links==
* [https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2p15.html PBS: Africans in America: Lucy Terry]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20061027022531/http://www.aaregistry.com/african_american_history/2010/Lucy_Terry_Prince_poet_and_abolitionist Entry at AA Registry]
* [http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9002918?tocId=9002918 ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' entry for Lucy Terry]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Terry, Lucy}}
[[Category:African-American poets]]
[[Category:African-American history of Massachusetts]]
[[Category:1730s births]]
[[Category:1821 deaths]]
[[Category:American women poets]]
[[Category:18th-century American poets]]
[[Category:19th-century American poets]]
[[Category:Writers from Massachusetts]]
[[Category:18th-century American slaves]]
[[Category:People from Deerfield, Massachusetts]]
[[Category:People from colonial Massachusetts]]
[[Category:19th-century American women writers]]
[[Category:18th-century American women writers]]
[[Category:18th-century African-American women]]
[[Category:18th-century African-American people]]
[[Category:19th-century African-American women writers]]
[[Category:19th-century American writers]]
[[Category:19th-century African-American writers]]