Lucy Prince of Sunderland, and her Family: The story of an early Black Vermonter

A Bennington Historical Society Presentation

Note: The date for this program has been changed from the usual 3rd Sunday to June 25th.

Lucy Terry Prince was born in Africa and brought to the colonies as a slave when she was five years old. When she was 70 years old, she moved to Sunderland, Vermont with some of her children. At that time only 0.2% of the people of Bennington County were Black. She struggled to obtain land that she felt was rightfully hers. Eventually many of the townspeople came to accept this loquacious woman, who is best known as America’s first African-American poet. This presentation will cover Lucy’s years in Sunderland, her fight to keep her land, and stories about her children and grandchildren.

Avis Hayden has been a hobby genealogist since 1990. After retiring from her career in health care, she delved deeper into that field, completing a program in Genealogical Research from Boston University in 2016. She has published five research articles and has presented at the New England Historical and Genealogical Conference. She volunteers at the Bennington Museum Research Library and with the Russell Collection of Vermontiana.

The Bennington Historical Society is a volunteer-run program of Bennington Museum. The BHS offers its programs at no charge with support from Williams Financial. You can support the efforts of the BHS to share the history of our region by making a donation.