Lucy Terry (c.1730-1821) is the author of the oldest known work of literature by an African American. Terry was stolen from Africa and sold into slavery as an infant. She was owned by Ebenezer Wells of Deerfield, who allowed her to be baptized into the Christian faith at about five years of age during the Great Awakening. Her work, "Bars Fight", is a ballad about attack upon two white families by Native Americans on August 25, 1746. The attack occurred in Deerfield, Massachusetts in an area called "The Bars", which was a colonial term for a meadow. The poem was preserved orally until it was finally published in 1855.A successful free black man named Abijah Prince purchased her freedom and married her in 1756. In 1764, the Princes settled in Guilford, Vermont, where all six of their children were born.
A persuasive orator, Terry successfully negotiated a land case before the Supreme Court of Vermont in the 1790s. She argued against two of the leading lawyers in the state, (one of whom later became the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Vermont) and won her case against the false land claims of Colonel Eli Bronson. Samuel Chase, the presiding justice of the Court, said that her argument was better than he'd heard from any Vermont lawyer. Prince died in 1794. By 1803, Terry moved to nearby Sunderland. She rode on horseback annually to visit his grave until she died in 1821 on July 11.
I find this photo interesting due to the picture quality as well as the story it appears to tell. As I read the description of Lucy Terry, the fact that she is the oldest writer of African American literature sticks with me. The picture almost defines the 1700’s in which reflects some of the highlights of Terry’s life. Her life as a slave comes through to me specifically in the garments in which we see Terry painted. Worked and depicted in earth like colors, her outfit shows the hard life of a slave that she experienced. Terry wears a cap top her head, a garment that a slave would be lucky to obtain when working in the suns heat rays. This cap, to me, helps to convey her strength for survival. Reading further into this description, finding her background as a determined fighter for freedom does not surprise me in the least. She smiles with the stern and fierce face in the portrait as well as a slight expression of care and truth hidden behind a sweet face. Something I think is very important to be illustrated in painting of someone of this caliber. The deep red background to me is hard to define but could definitely represent the blood and strife Lucy Terry went through to again the life in which she passed from in 1821. To me, it seems she deserves nothing less than a strong and impactful portrait.
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