Community Event at the Guilford Welcome Center 11am Tuesday October 19, 2021
The Brattleboro Words Trail is collaborating with community partners to host an official dedication of the much-deserved state historic marker recognizing the achievements of Lucy Terry Prince, considered the nation’s first African American poet, and her husband Abijah Prince. The Princes were early Black landowners in Guilford and Sunderland Vermont in the mid 1700’s, and eloquent advocates for civil rights.
The event is co-hosted by the Brattleboro Words Trail, the Town of Guilford, and Guilford Historical Society. A drummer and special speakers will commemorate the placement of the marker at the Guilford Welcome Center (Exit 1 on I91) Tuesday, October 19, 2021 from 11:00 to 11:30 am.
Highlights will include:
Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina, former Guilford resident who wrote the Pulitzer Prize-nominated book Mr. and Mrs. Prince: How an Extraordinary Eighteenth-Century Family Moved Out of Slavery and into Legend. An alumna of Marlboro College, she’s been a tenured full professor at Vassar College, Barnard College/Columbia University, Dartmouth College and currently Chairs the Biography Program at University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Shanta Lee Gander, Brattleboro-based, multi-media artist who has written about and portrayed Lucy dramatically as an Advisory Team Member of the Brattleboro Words Trail including ongoing efforts to establish the historic marker. She will perform Lucy Terry Prince’s one and only known work “Bars Fight.” Gander and Desmond Peeples produced the Lucy Terry Prince audio story for the Brattleboro Words Trail which can be heard here: Brattleboro Words Trail (https://brattleboro.stqry.app/en/story/16641).
Curtiss Reed, Executive Director of Vermont Partnership for Fairness and Diversity and founder of the Vermont African American Heritage Trail. The Prince memorial will eventually be a first stop on that Trail at this ‘gateway to Vermont.’
Lissa Weinmann, Brattleboro Words Trail Co-Founder and Executive Producer, will welcome attendees and Verandah Porche, poet and Vice-Chair of the Guilford Selectboard, will emcee the event.
Laura V. Trieschmann, State Historic Preservation Officer, will present the Vermont Roadside Historic Site as the administrator of the program and as a representative of Governor Scott. Other local elected and town officials will also be on hand for the dedication.
Sayon Camara of Guinea, West Africa, and current Vermont resident, will perform on African drums,
Lucy Terry Prince is recognized as the United States’ first known African American poet for documenting a 1746 attack involving colonists and indigenous inhabitants of the area often referred to as the second Deerfield Massacre (the first happened in 1704) or the“Bars Fight.” The poem of the same name, “Bars Fight,” survived in oral tradition for 100 years before being published on the front page of the Springfield Republican on the occasion of her death in 1821.
The Brattleboro Words Trail submitted the application initiating the process for a historic site marker for the Princes at the Guilford Welcome Center in order to share this important Vermont history with the almost 800,000 people estimated to pass through the Center annually. The Guilford Historical Society and the Guilford Selectboard both voted in support of having the historic marker at the Welcome Center.
“Lucy and Abijah Prince, an African American family, were among the very first settlers in Vermont,” said Gerzina. “It’s so important that Vermonters know this history, which may surprise many and should revise the way people imagine Vermont history and the way that it’s taught.”
July 11, 2021 marked the 200th anniversary of Lucy Terry Prince’s death (c. 1730-1821). Her husband, Abijah Prince (c.1706-94) served in the French & Indian Wars as a slave and freedman. The Guilford Selectboard voted to recognize July 11, 2021 as ‘Abijah and Lucy Terry Prince Day’ to honor the contributions they and other individuals of color have made to Guilford. The Sunderland Selectboard also adopted a proclamation to honor them on the date of her death.
These town efforts were supported by State Representatives Sara Coffey of Guilford and Kathleen James, Seth Bongartz, and David Durfee of Sunderland, who completed a joint Vermont State House and Senate resolution to honor Abijah and Lucy Terry Prince. The text of the two-sided, cast-aluminum marker and the state proclamation honoring their memory can be found below.
Partially inspired by Gerzina’s Mr. and Mrs. Prince: How An Extraordinary Eighteenth-Century Family Moved Out Of Slavery And Into Legend, the Brattleboro Words Project began working with the theme of the Princes in 2017 when it won a National Main Street/ Edward Jones “Placemaking on Main Challenge” to fund an innovative Mobile, Interactive Literary Exhibition Space (MILES). The result was a mobile, interactive, multimedia history exhibit, “Lucy Speaks,” which debuted on Main Street as part of the 2017 Brattleboro Literary Festival.
“The Princes’ story is essential Vermont history” said Gander. “Their story and stories about Black Americans in early New England are key to correcting our misunderstandings about the individuals who helped to build our country. Having this historic marker at the Welcome Center is a full gesture that Vermont is a state that is seeking to live its diversity.”
The Princes’ historic site marker is eventually destined to become a popular stop on the Vermont African American Heritage Trail. “The Abijah and Lucy Terry Prince story is but one of many stories along the Vermont African American Heritage Trail,” Reed said. “We invite all visitors and Vermonters alike to learn the history of Vermonters of African heritage and those who helped freedom seekers to safety.”
The audio mapping of the Brattleboro Words Trail (https://brattleborowords.org/) is an evolving project founded and run by the Brattleboro Historical Society, the Brattleboro Literary Festival, Brooks Memorial Library, Write Action, and Marlboro College, sparked by a National Endowment for the Humanities challenge grant (2017-2021). That partnership also produced the book Print Town: Brattleboro’s Legacy of Words, now published by the Vermont Historical Society (https://vermonthistory.org/print-town). Managed by an Advisory Team at the Vermont Folklife Center with a home-base at 118 Elliot in Brattleboro, the Brattleboro Words Trail sponsors research, events, educational trainings and develops creative maps to stimulate ongoing community contributions to the Trail’s 100+ audio story website and its free gps-triggered Apple and Android mobile app for self-guided audio explorations of America’s most storied small town.
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PHOTOGRAPHS AND ADDITIONAL MATERIALS: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/15H_boHr25FJ-SppWS-TkoOKc2REEjMMt?usp=sharing
- Event speakers Gretchen Gerzina, Shanta Lee Gander, and Curtiss Reed, Jr.: Gerzina_Gander_Reed 2021.jpg
- Brattleboro Words Project’s 2017 Mobile, Interactive Literary Exhibition Space (MILES) with “Lucy Speaks” exhibit at the Brattleboro Literary Festival: MILES.jpg; MILES Lucy Speaks Visitor.jpg
- Reed, Gander, Gerzina at MILES presentation, 2017: Reed_Gander_Gerzina 2017.jpg
- Cover of “Mr. and Mrs. Prince” book by Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina: Mr-and-Mrs-Prince by Gretchen Gerzina.jpg
- Vermont Roadside Historic Site Marker (Front): Prince Marker (Front).JPEG
- Vermont Roadside Historic Site Marker (Back): Prince Marker (Back).JPEG
VERMONT ROADSIDE HISTORIC SITE MARKER FINAL TEXT
Abijah and Lucy Terry Prince
Early Landowners and First Known African American Poet
Abijah Prince (c. 1706-94) served in the French & Indian Wars, as a slave and freedman.
In 1751, he achieved his freedom and registered as a taxpayer and proprietor for land Ownership. Lucy Terry (c. 1730-1821) was stolen from Africa as a child and enslaved in Deerfield, MA. Her only surviving poem “Bars Fight” records the 1746 attack on Deerfield settlers. The singsong ballad, the earliest existing poem by an African American, endured in oral tradition for over 100 years before appearing on the front page of the Springfield Daily Republican in 1854.
Lucy became free sometime after they married in 1756. In 1769 they began settling 100 acres in Guilford.
Vermont Division for Historic Preservation – 2021
(SIDE TWO)
Abijah and Lucy Terry Prince
Seekers of Justice to Protect Land Rights
continued from other side
The Princes valued the importance of land ownership and used the law to protect their rights. Upon settling in Guilford, they faced ongoing harassment that resulted in damaged property and crops. In 1785, Lucy brought the case before the Governor and Council, winning her protection request. In 1803, Lucy’s sons brought a land rights case against Eli Brownson, which went as far as the Vermont Supreme Court. She was awarded $200 but not the land in Sunderland. As the widow of an original proprietor, she continued to claim her rights to the land. By 1806, the Princes were able to settle on lots the Sunderland Selectmen purchased from Brownson to truly settle this debt.
Vermont Division for Historic Preservation – 2021
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State Proclamation
House concurrent resolution honoring the memory of Vermont African American pioneer Lucy Terry Prince on the bicentennial of her death. (H.C.R.66) Offered by: Representatives Coffey of Guilford, Bongartz of Manchester, Durfee of Shaftsbury, and James of Manchester
Whereas, slave traders abducted Lucy Terry as a small child from her native Africa, and she was transported to Mendon, Massachusetts, and several years later to Deerfield, Massachusetts, and
Whereas, following the 1746 confrontation between Deerfield’s farmers and the indigenous population, she composed the ballad Bars Fight, making her the first known African American poet, and
Whereas, in 1756, Lucy Terry married a formerly enslaved man, Abijah Prince, and they settled in Deerfield to raise a family and later settled on 100 acres in Guilford, and
Whereas, after incidents of harassment and property damage, she secured an order of protection when she brought her grievances to the Governor and Council, and
Whereas, in 1803, Lucy Terry Prince’s sons brought a land dispute case in Sunderland that eventually reached the Vermont Supreme Court, and Sunderland settled her and her remaining family on a town lot where she remained until her death in 1821, now
therefore be it Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives:
That the General Assembly honors the memory of Vermont African American pioneer Lucy Terry Prince on the bicentennial of her death, and be it further Resolved: That the Secretary of State be directed to send a copy of this resolution to the Guilford and Sunderland Town Clerks, and to the Brattleboro Words Project.