STATE HISTORIC MARKER CELEBRATION FOR ABIJAH & LUCY TERRY PRINCE
Community Event at the Guilford Welcome Center 11am Tuesday October 19, 2021
You are invited to the official dedication of the much-deserved state historic marker recognizing the achievements of Lucy Terry Prince, considered the nation's first African American poet, and her husband Abijah Prince. The Princes were early Black landowners in Guilford and Sunderland Vermont in the mid 1700's, and eloquent advocates for civil rights.
The event is co-hosted by the Brattleboro Words Trail, the Town of Guilford, and Guilford Historical Society. A drummer and special speakers will commemorate the placement of the marker at the Guilford Welcome Center (Exit 1 on I91) Tuesday, October 19, 2021 from 11:00 to 11:30 am.
Highlights will include:
Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina, former Guilford resident who wrote the Pulitzer Prize-nominated book Mr. and Mrs. Prince: How an Extraordinary Eighteenth-Century Family Moved Out of Slavery and into Legend. An alumna of Marlboro College, she's been a tenured full professor at Vassar College, Barnard College/Columbia University, Dartmouth College and currently Chairs the Biography Program at University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Shanta Lee Gander, Brattleboro-based, multi-media artist who has written about and portrayed Lucy dramatically as an Advisory Team Member of the Brattleboro Words Trail including ongoing efforts to establish the historic marker. She will perform Lucy Terry Prince's one and only known work "Bars Fight." Gander and Desmond Peeples produced the Lucy Terry Prince audio story for the Brattleboro Words Trail which can be heard here: Brattleboro Words Trail.
Curtiss Reed, Executive Director of Vermont Partnership for Fairness and Diversity and founder of the Vermont African American Heritage Trail. The Prince memorial will eventually be a first stop on that Trail at this 'gateway to Vermont.'
Lissa Weinmann, Brattleboro Words Trail Co-Founder and Executive Producer, will welcome attendees and Verandah Porche, poet and Vice-Chair of the Guilford Selectboard, will emcee the event.
Laura V. Trieschmann, State Historic Preservation Officer, will present the Vermont Roadside Historic Site as the administrator of the program and as a representative of Governor Scott. Other local elected and town officials will also be on hand for the dedication.
Sayon Camara of Guinea, West Africa, and current Vermont resident, will perform on African drums.
Lucy Terry Prince is recognized as the United States' first known African American poet, a truth teller and bearer of witness of the famed Deerfield Massacre involving colonists and indigenous inhabitants of the area through "Bars Fight." The poem survived in oral tradition for 100 years before being published on the front page of the Springfield Republican on the occasion of her death in 1821.
July 11, 2021 marked the 200th anniversary of Lucy Terry Prince's death (c. 1730-1821). Her husband, Abijah Prince (c.1706-94) served in the French & Indian Wars as a slave and freedman. The Guilford Selectboard voted to recognize July 11, 2021 as 'Abijah and Lucy Terry Prince Day' to honor the contributions they and other individuals of color have made to Guilford. The Sunderland Selectboard also adopted a proclamation to honor them on the date of her death.
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