"Lucy Terry Prince" {1730-1821}

 the author of the oldest known work of literature by an African American.She was stone from

Africa and sold into slavery as an infant.She was owned by Ebenezer Wells of Deerfield Massachusetts,who allowed her to be baptized into the christian faith at about five years of age during the Great Awakening.Her work,"Bars Fight",is a ballad about attack upon two white families by Native American on August 25,1746.The attack occurred in an area of Deerfield called "The Bars,"which was a colonial term for a meadow.The poem was preserved orally until it was finally published in 1855.A successful free black man named Abijah Prince her freedom and married her in 1756.in 1764,they settled in Guilford,Vermont where all six of there children were born.Their names were Tatnal,Cesar,Drucilla,Durexa,Abijah Jr,and Festus.Cesar fought in the Revolutionary War.In 1785,when a neighboring white family threatened the Princes,they appealed to the Governor and Council of for protection.The Council ordered Guilford's selectman to defend them.A persuasive orator,she successful negotiated a land case before the Supreme Court of Vermont in the 1790s.She argued against two of the leading lawyers in the state,(one of whom later became the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Vermont) and won her case against the false land claims of Colonel Eli Bronson,Samuel Chase,the presiding justice of the court,said that her argument was better than he heard from any Vermont lawyer.She also delevered a three-hour address to the board of trustees of William College in order to gain admittance for her son Festus.While she was not successful,her speech was remembered for its eloquence and skill.Abijah died in 1794.By 1803,Terry moved to nearby Sunderland.She rode on horseback annual to visit his grave until she died.