Aaron Doçi
Marking multiple legacies
A new historical marker celebrates the lives and legacies of Abijah and Lucy Terry Prince, formerly enslaved property owners who lived in Guilford. Lucy wrote the earliest known example of African American poetry in the United States and argued for her rights in front of the governor of Vermont and the state Supreme Court.
With its unveiling on Oct. 19, a new historical marker at the Southeastern Vermont Welcome Center on Interstate 91 now commemorates a multifaceted legacy of an 18th-century African American couple.
Abijah and Lucy Terry Prince were pioneers of African American land ownership in Vermont during the late 1700s, and Lucy Terry Prince's ballad poem, “Bars Fight,” is considered the oldest known work of literature by an African American, its 28 stanzas preserving an account of a 1746 conflict.