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Lucy Terry was only one of the black slaves in the town of Deerfield, Massachusetts, in the 18th century. Purchased by Ebenezer Wells about 1730, she grew up in that town and married a free black, Abijah Prince, in 1756. As a young girl, she was known as a storyteller. She was literate, judging by this poem, a tribute to the members of the Deerfield families whom Lucy knew and who were killed, injured, or captured in the last attack on Deerfield by Native people on August 25, 1746.

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