"Bars Fight" is a ballad poem written by

Lucy Terry Lucy Terry Prince, often credited as simply Lucy Terry (c. 1733–1821), was an American settler and poet. Kidnapped in Africa and enslaved, she was taken to the British colony of Rhode Island. Her future husband purchased her freedom before ...

about an attack upon two white families by Native Americans on August 21, 1746. The incident occurred in an area of

Deerfield, Massachusetts Deerfield is a town in Franklin County, Massachusetts, United States. Settled near the Connecticut River in the 17th century during the colonial era, the population was 5,090 as of the 2020 census. Deerfield is part of the Springfield, Massachus ...

called "The Bars," which was a colonial term for a meadow. The poem was preserved

orally The word oral may refer to: Relating to the mouth * Relating to the mouth, the first portion of the alimentary canal that primarily receives food and liquid **Oral administration of medicines ** Oral examination (also known as an oral exam or oral ...

and not published until the November 20, 1854, issue of ''The'' ''Springfield Daily Republican'', as an excerpt from the book
History of Western Massachusetts
' published the following year (1855) by ''Republican'' associate editor

Josiah Gilbert Holland Josiah Gilbert Holland (July 24, 1819 – October 12, 1881) was an American novelist, essayist, poet and spiritual mentor to the Nation in the years following the Civil War. Born in Western Massachusetts, he was “the most successful man of lett ...

. It is believed to be the oldest known work of literature by an

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

Margaret Busby Margaret Yvonne Busby, , Hon. FRSL (born 1944), also known as Nana Akua Ackon, is a Ghanaian-born publisher, editor, writer and broadcaster, resident in the UK. She was Britain's then youngest publisher as well as the first black female book p ...

, ''

Daughters of Africa ''Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Words and Writings by Women of African Descent from the Ancient Egyptian to the Present'' is a compilation of orature and literature by more than 200 women from Africa and the African diaspora ...

'', London: Jonathan Cape, 1992, p. 16–17. and is the only known work by Lucy Terry.

Text of the ballad

The text of the ballad from Holland's ''History of Western Massachusetts'', 1855: August 'twas the twenty-fifth, Seventeen hundred forty-six; The Indians did in ambush lay, Some very valient men to slay, The names of whom I'll not leave out. Samuel Allen like a hero fout, And though he was so brave and bold, His face no more shall we behold. Eleazer Hawks was killed outright, Before he had time to fight,— Before he did the Indians see, Was shot and killed immediately. Oliver Amsden he was slain, Which caused his friends much grief and pain. Simeon Amsden they found dead, Not many rods distant from his head. Adonijah Gillett we do hear Did lose his life which was so dear. John Sadler fled across the water, And thus escaped the dreadful slaughter. Eunice Allen see the Indians coming, And hopes to save herself by running, And had not her petticoats stopped her, The awful creatures had not catched her, Nor tommy hawked her on her head, And left her on the ground for dead. Young Samuel Allen, Oh lack-a-day! Was taken and carried to Canada. After the word "slay," an alternate oral transmission of the poem offers an accurate location and body count: "Twas nigh unto Sam Dickson's mill / The Indians there five men did kill."

Rediscovery

After its 1855 publication the poem was undiscovered until 1942, when it was published in Lorenzo Greene's ''The Negro in Colonial New England, 1620–1776''. This youthful

occasional poem Occasional poetry is poetry composed for a particular occasion. In the history of literature, it is often studied in connection with orality, performance, and patronage. Term As a term of literary criticism, "occasional poetry" describes the work ...

is the only surviving work by Terry, who was said to have been a prolific poet. Recent scholarship has instead drawn attention to how Terry evokes her participation in the local community by recounting the names of the men and women who fought alongside her, and how the town responded by preserving the poem and her name in their oral histories.Huse, Ann A. "Beyond “The Bars”: Lucy Terry Prince and the Margins of the Colonial Landscape." Liminality, Hybridity, and American Women's Literature. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, 2018. p.52.

References

{{reflist, 30em 18th-century poems African-American poetry Oral literature African-American literature Occasional poetry Native Americans in popular culture Works about White Americans