Lucy Terry Prince & “The Black Man in Song” includes Local History
Guilford, Vt. – On Saturday, February 22, at 3:00 p.m., Friends of Music at Guilford presents “Lucy Terry Prince & The Black Man in Song” at Guilford Community Church (snow date: Feb. 23). Co-sponsored by Guilford Historical Society, this Black History Month event includes a talk by Linda Hecker on early Guilford resident Lucy Terry Prince (1730-1821) and a concert of works by ten African-American composers featuring tenor Irwin Reese and pianist Julia Bady.
African-born Lucy Terry grew up as a slave in the Ebenezer Wells household of Deerfield, Massachusetts. Considered the earliest African-American literary figure, she authored a poem about a 1746 Indian attack on Deerfield that was handed down orally for many years before its first publication. She married Abijah Prince, a free Black man from nearby Northfield, and raised a large family on land they bought in Guilford, Vermont. Lucy’s skills as an orator were legendary.











