Vermont marker recognizes early African American poet
GUILFORD, Vt. (AP) — Vermont has erected a historical marker recognizing Lucy Terry Prince, who wrote what is thought to be the oldest known poem by an African American. The marker was unveiled this week at the Interstate 91 welcome center in Guilford. Prince and her husband lived in Guilford the late 1700s. The marker states that as a child, Lucy Terry was stolen from Africa and enslaved in Deerfield, Massachusetts. It says her poem “Bars Fight” tells the story of a 1746 attack on Deerfield settlers that endured in oral tradition for over 100 years before being printed in the 1850s.