Lucy Terry was an African American poet and anti-slavery campaigner who lived from 1730 to 1821.

Early Life

Lucy Terry Prince was a little child when she was captured in Africa. She was transported and sold into slavery in the US. Her exact date of birth is questionable, but it is believed that she was born around 1730. Her slave merchants sold her in Rhode Island. She stayed at the home of Samuel Terry for a while before being resold again. She adopted the family’s last name as was the custom in naming slaves.

When she was about five years, she was sold to Captain Ebenezer Wells in Deerfield Massachusetts. Prince was the only domestic slave. Since Wells had no biological child, they let her enjoy some sense of family attachment to them. She was taught how to read and write. She was baptized into Christianity as a child. Prince was given the membership of the church at the age of fourteen. This was rare in the slavery days, but the Wells gave her an opportunity that few slaves got from their masters.

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Poetic Literary

She was known as an eloquent orator with good mastery of her articulation. Her poetry started when she was admitted in the membership of the local church. Prince composed poems and other short stories. Since she never wrote or documented them, most of them were forgotten or lost in the years. Her most famous poem "The Bars Fight" was published after her death.

In this poem, Prince recounts the final experience of two white households before their deaths. They were attacked by the Native American warriors. The two sides fought in the bars; the bars was a colloquial term for meadows. When the fighting had settled all the members for the white families had been killed. Though the poem had no conformity with conventional English poetry, it became famous among the white community. For years, the poem was over through oral recitation.

When she got married, her home was a center of literature. Free men and slaves often congregated in her home to hear her poems. She was particularly keen on the African stories of old. These narrations reminded the black community of their heritage and cultural history.

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