¶ … Bars Fight" is Lucy Terry's only surviving work. Transmitted orally for approximately one hundred years before going into print, the ballad is considered the first composition of an African-American citizen. Born in 1724 in Africa, Terry, later married Prince, had come to The States after being kidnapped and sold as a slave. In 1756 she became free by marrying Abijah Prince. The two settled in Guilford, Vermont along with their children. Lucy is known to have been a skilful orator, although failing to obtain admission for her son at Williams College, she managed to win a case over an attempt of thievery to which Samuel Chase acknowledged that her arguments stood before any of the Vermont's lawyers. In this paper however, we are not so much concerned with Terry's unofficial lawyer activities, rather the focus is to provide further critical attention in regards to Terry's poem "Bars Fight." In this respect, we will be addressing some contextual issues with a following on literary analysis.
When in 1746 Abenaki Indians raided Deerfield and five people were killed during the raid, Terry became the first known Afro American author when she decided to depict the event in a poem. A resident of Deerfield herself, Terry was terrified by the occurrence and decided to relate the event of the day on paper. It is, in fact, the most solid piece of information that has come to us in regards to what happened that day. None of the members of the community were actually surprised to find that Terry chose to take such an initiative because her house is known to have been a gathering place within the community where Terry would have often recited poems and told stories.
From a technical point-of-view, "Bars Fight" is rather a simple poem constructed in thirty lines and consisting of simple rhymed couplets. The simple structure of the poem resembles what today may pass for free verse. The rhymed couplets can be easily mistaken for intentional humor, however we believe that is due to the simplicity of the composition. Nonetheless, there is a possibility that humor may in fact pass for satire...
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