13 Facts About Lucy Terry

Lucy Terry composed a ballad poem, "Bars Fight", about a 1746 incident in which two white families were attacked by Native Americans.

Lucy Terry was abducted from there and sold into slavery in Rhode Island as an infant in about 1733.

Lucy Terry lived in Rhode Island until the age of five, when she was sold to Ebenezer Wells of Deerfield, Massachusetts, who allowed the five-year-old Terry to be baptized into the Christian faith during the Great Awakening.

In 1756, Lucy married Abijah Prince, a successful free Black man from Curacao, who had purchased her freedom.

Lucy Terry's work is considered the oldest known work of literature by an African American, though Phillis Wheatley's Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, printed in 1773, was the first published work by an African American.

In 1785, Lucy Terry successfully pled her case before the Governor of Vermont, who found that she had been "much injured" by the Noyes who were "greatly oppressing" her and her husband.

Lucy Terry was the first woman to argue before the high court, holding her own against two of the leading lawyers in the state, one of whom later became Chief Justice.

In 1806, after months of petitioning, Lucy Terry convinced the town selectmen of Sunderland, Vermont to purchase an additional $200 of land from Brownson for her use, to provide for her family.

Lucy Terry reportedly delivered a three-hour address to the board of trustees of Williams College while trying to gain admittance for her son Festus.

Lucy Terry was unsuccessful, and Festus was reportedly denied entry on account of the school's racist admission policies.

Lucy Terry rode on horseback annually to visit her husband's grave until she died in 1821.

Lucy Terry's volubility was exceeded by none, and in general, the fluency of her speech was not destitute of instruction and education.

Lucy Terry was much respected among her acquaintances, who treated her with deference.