Bars Fight Poem, First Great Poetry by African American, Lucy Terry Prince

 

Below in this page, Balckhistory.com.ng will be exploring on the life and great work of the famous Lucy Terry whose married name is Lucy Prince Abijah.

Lucy Terry was born in 1730 in West Africa and at infant was take by slave traders to Rhode Island and she served as a slave in the household of Wells untill she married and was free. Many people believe that her freedom was Manumitted from Wells after her marriage.

She has her married name as Lucy Prince when she married a free black man named, Abijah Prince and both couple in 1764, settled in Guilford Vermont where they had 6 children.

According to history, the couple had a land case with colonial Eli Bronson and appeared in supreme Court hiring the later Vermont governor, Isaac Ticknor.

Lucy is popularly known as a storyteller, and an activist of colonial and pre colonial Africa. She become popular for the great patriotic poem that commemorate the the events between the white settler and the Indian as in 1746, white settlers were killed in an encounter with the Indians.

Lucy most notable and the only surviving work is her poem, Bars fight and the peom reads;

August ’twas the twenty-fifth,

Seventeen

hundred forty-six;

The Indians did in ambush lay,

Some very valiant men to slay,

The names of whom I’ll not leave out.

Samuel Allen like a hero fout,

And though he was so brave and bold,

His face no more shalt we behold

Eteazer Hawks was killed outright,

Before he had time to fight, –

Before he did the Indians see,

Was shot and killed immediately.

Oliver Amsden he was slain,

Which caused his friends much grief and pain.

Simeon Amsden they found dead,

Not many rods distant from his head.

Adonijah Gillett we do hear

Did lose his life which was so dear.

John Sadler fled across the water,

And thus escaped the dreadful slaughter.

Eunice Allen see the Indians coming,

And hopes to save herself by running,

And had not her petticoats stopped her,

The awful creatures had not catched her,

Nor tommy hawked her on the head,

And left her on the ground for dead.

Young Samuel Allen, Oh lack-a-day!

Was taken and carried to Canada.

– By Lucy Terry Prince.

In the poem above, you can see as Lucy gives a clear narrative of the event attack upon two white families by Native Americans on August 25, 1746. She haves a clear narration including the names of the victims and the surviving of the attack using a melodious poet.

The name of poem, Bar was gotten from the location where the incident occurred, in a  area of Deerfield called “The Bars” and this was colonial term for a meadow.

Bars Fight was preserved orally and not published until 1855 when it was first published and it contains of a 26 lines in irregular iambic tetrameter.

Although, Lucy is rumored to have numerous works and books but Bars Fight was her only surviving work known so far.

Proudly written by OGE EBUBE KINGSLEY, COPYRIGHT OGE LALA BUSINESS CONCEPT 2023.

 

 

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  1. Clotel: The President’s Daughter, First Novel published by African American, Williams Well Brown - Black History

    - 6:40 am

    […] Below in this page, we will be exploring on yet another history book first published by an African American just as we told the story of Bars Fight Poem, which was the First Great Poetry by African American, Lucy Terry Prince. […]

    Clotel: The President’s Daughter, First Novel published by African American, Williams Well Brown - Black History">Reply
  2. Phillis Wheatley, First African American to Publishes Poetry Books - Black History

    - 2:39 pm

    […] Also read on: Bars Fight Poem, First Great Poetry by African American, Lucy Terry Prince […]

    Phillis Wheatley, First African American to Publishes Poetry Books - Black History">Reply

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