Abijah Prince, born about 1706 and dead by 1794, served in the French and Indian Wars while first enslaved and later a freedman, and in 1751 he gained his freedom and registered as a taxpayer and proprietor for land ownership. Lucy Terry, born about 1730 and dead in 1821, was stolen from Africa as a child and enslaved in Deerfield, Massachusetts. Her only surviving poem, “Bars Fight,” recorded the 1746 attack on Deerfield settlers, and this singsong ballad, the earliest existing poem by an African American, survived in oral tradition for more than 100 years before appearing on the front page of the Springfield Daily Republican in 1854. After their marriage in 1756, Lucy became free sometime later, and in 1769 the couple began settling 100 acres in Guilford. Valuing land ownership, they used the law to defend their rights after facing repeated harassment that damaged their property and crops. In 1785, Lucy brought her case before the Governor and Council and won a request for protection. In 1803, Lucy’s sons pursued a land rights case against Eli Brownson that reached the Vermont Supreme Court; she received $200 but not the land in Sunderland. As the widow of an original proprietor, she continued to press her claim, and by 1806 the family was able to settle on lots the Sunderland selectmen purchased from Brownson to resolve the debt.