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Bars Fight
"Bars Fight" is a ballad poem written by Lucy Terry about an attack upon two white families by Native Americans on August 21, 1746. The incident occurred in an area of Deerfield called "The Bars", which was a colonial term for a meadow. The poem was preserved orally and not published until 1855, in Josiah Gilbert Holland's ''History of Western Massachusetts''. It is believed to be the oldest known work of literature by an African AmericanMargaret Busby, ''Daughters of Africa'', 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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ballad (poetry)
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or ''ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of Britain and Ireland from the Late Middle Ages until the 19th century. They were widely used across Europe, and later in Australia, North Africa, North America and South America. Ballads are often 13 lines with an ABABBCBC form, consisting of couplets (two lines) of rhymed verse, each of 14 syllables. Another common form is ABAB or ABCB repeated, in alternating eight and six syllable lines. Many ballads were written and sold as single sheet broadsides. The form was often used by poets and composers from the 18th century onwards to produce lyrical ballads. In the later 19th century, the term took on the meaning of a slow form of popular love song and is often used for any love song, particularly the sentimental ballad of pop or roc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lucy Terry
Lucy Terry Prince, often credited as simply Lucy Terry (1733–1821), was an American settler and poet. Kidnapped in Africa and enslaved, she was taken to Rhode Island, America. Her future husband purchased her freedom before their marriage in 1756. She composed a ballad poem, "Bars Fight", about a 1746 incident. It was preserved orally until being published in 1855. It is considered the oldest known work of literature by an African American. Early life Terry was born in 1733 in Africa. She was abducted from there and sold into slavery in Rhode Island as an infant in about 1733.Margaret Busby (ed.), "Lucy Terry", ''Daughters of Africa'', London: Jonathan Cape, 1992, pp. 16–17. She spent time in Rhode Island until the age of five, when she was sold to Ebenezer Wells of Deerfield, Massachusetts, who allowed the five-year-old Terry to be baptized into the Christian faith during the Great Awakening. A successful free black man named Abijah Prince from Curaçao purchased her freedo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Native Americans In The United States
Native Americans, also known as American Indians, First Americans, Indigenous Americans, and other terms, are the Indigenous peoples of the mainland United States ( Indigenous peoples of Hawaii, Alaska and territories of the United States are generally known by other terms). There are 574 federally recognized tribes living within the US, about half of which are associated with Indian reservations. As defined by the United States Census, "Native Americans" are Indigenous tribes that are originally from the contiguous United States, along with Alaska Natives. Indigenous peoples of the United States who are not listed as American Indian or Alaska Native include Native Hawaiians, Samoan Americans, and the Chamorro people. The US Census groups these peoples as " Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islanders". European colonization of the Americas, which began in 1492, resulted in a precipitous decline in Native American population because of new diseases, wars, ethni ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Deerfield, Massachusetts
Deerfield is a New England town, town in Franklin County, Massachusetts, 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, Massachusetts Springfield, Massachusetts, metropolitan area, Metropolitan Statistical Area in western Massachusetts, lying north of the city of Springfield. Deerfield includes the villages of South Deerfield, Massachusetts, South Deerfield and Old Deerfield, which is home to two museums: Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association and Historic Deerfield, Inc. Historic Deerfield is designated as a National Historic Landmark district, and the organization operates a museum with a focus on decorative arts, early American material culture, and history. Its eleven house museums offer interpretation of society, history, and culture from the colonial era through the late nineteenth century. The Pocumtuck Valley M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oral Literature
Oral literature, orature or folk literature is a genre of literature that is spoken or sung as opposed to that which is written, though much oral literature has been transcribed. There is no standard definition, as anthropologists have used varying descriptions for oral literature or folk literature. A broad conceptualization refers to it as literature characterized by oral transmission and the absence of any fixed form. It includes the stories, legends, and history passed through generations in a spoken form. Background Pre-literate societies, by definition, have no written literature, but may possess rich and varied oral traditions—such as folk epics, folk narratives (including fairy tales and fables), folk drama, proverbs and folksongs—that effectively constitute an oral literature. Even when these are collected and published by scholars such as folklorists and paremiographers, the result is still often referred to as "oral literature". The different genres of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Josiah Gilbert Holland
Josiah Gilbert Holland (July 24, 1819 – October 12, 1881) was an American novelist and poet who also wrote under the pseudonym Timothy Titcomb. He helped to found and edit ''Scribner's Monthly'' (afterwards the ''Century Magazine''), in which appeared his novels, ''Arthur Bonnicastle'', ''The Story of Sevenoaks'', ''Nicholas Minturn''. In poetry he wrote "Bitter-Sweet" (1858), "Kathrina", the lyrics to the Methodist hymn " There's a Song in the Air", and many others. Biography Born in Belchertown, Massachusetts, on July 24, 1819, Holland grew up in a poor family struggling to make ends meet. After a time, Josiah was forced to work in a factory to help the family. He then spent a short time studying at Northampton (Massachusetts) High School before withdrawing due to ill health. Later he studied medicine at Berkshire Medical College, where he took a degree in 1844. Hoping to become a successful physician, he began a medical practice with classmate Dr. Bailey in Springfield, Ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
African American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of enslaved Africans who are from the United States. While some Black immigrants or their children may also come to identify as African-American, the majority of first generation immigrants do not, preferring to identify with their nation of origin. African Americans constitute the second largest racial group in the U.S. after White Americans, as well as the third largest ethnic group after Hispanic and Latino Americans. Most African Americans are descendants of enslaved people within the boundaries of the present United States. On average, African Americans are of West/ Central African with some European descent; some also have Native American and other ancestry. According to U.S. Census Bureau data, African immigrants generally do not s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 youngest and first black female book publisherJazzmine Breary"Let's not forget" in ''Writing the Future: Black and Asian Writers and Publishers in the UK Market Place'', Spread the Word, April 2013, p. 30. when she and Clive Allison (1944–2011) co-founded Margaret Busby"Clive Allison obituary" ''The Guardian'', 3 August 2011. the London-based publishing house Allison and Busby (A & B) in the 1960s. She edited the anthology ''Daughters of Africa'' (1992), and its 2019 follow-up ''New Daughters of Africa''. She is a recipient of the Benson Medal from the Royal Society of Literature.Natasha Onwuemezi"Busby to compile anthology of African women writers" ''The Bookseller'', 15 December 2017. In 2020 she was voted one of the "100 Great Black Britons". [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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, edited and introduced by Margaret Busby,Tonya Bolden"Book Review: Two Types of Revelation – ''Daughters of Africa''" ''Black Enterprise'', March 1993, p. 12. who compared the process of assembling the volume to "trying to catch a flowing river in a calabash". First published in 1992,Kinna"Daughters of Africa edited by Margaret Busby" Kinna Reads, 24 September 2010. in London by Jonathan Cape (having been commissioned by Candida Lacey, formerly of Pandora Press and later publisher of Myriad Editions), and in New York by Pantheon Books, ''Daughters of Africa'' is regarded as a pioneering work, covering a variety of genres – including fiction, essays, poetry, drama, memoirs and children's writing – and more than 1000 pages in extent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lorenzo Greene
Lorenzo Johnston Greene (1899–1988) was an American educator who taught history at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri from 1933 to 1972. His book, ''Missouri’s Black Heritage'', co-authored by Antonio Holland and Gary Kremer, was a pioneering work on the African-American experience in Missouri. He co-authored several works and his historical diaries and notes have been used in other historical texts, such as ''Selling Black History for Carter G. Woodson''. He worked with Carter Woodson, who was known as the "Father of Black History". Excerpts of his diary appeared in ''Black Dixie'', a book about African-Americans in Houston. Timeline * 1899, Nov.16 Born, Ansonia, Connecticut * 1924 B.A., Howard University, Washington, D.C. * 1926 M.A. in history, Columbia University, New York, N.Y. * 1928 – 1933 Field representative and research assistant to Carter G. Woodson, director, Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, Washington, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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's purpose and the poet's relation to subject matter. It is not a genre, but several genres originate as occasional poetry, including epithalamia (wedding songs), dirges or funerary poems, paeans, and victory odes. Occasional poems may also be composed exclusive of or within any given set of genre conventions to commemorate single events or anniversaries, such as birthdays, foundings, or dedications. Occasional poetry is often lyric because it originates as performance, in antiquity and into the 16th century even with musical accompaniment; at the same time, because performance implies an audience, its communal or public nature can place it in contrast with the intimacy or personal expression of emotion often associated with the term "lyr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
18th-century Poems
The 18th century lasted from January 1, 1701 ( MDCCI) to December 31, 1800 ( MDCCC). During the 18th century, elements of Enlightenment thinking culminated in the American, French, and Haitian Revolutions. During the century, slave trading and human trafficking expanded across the shores of the Atlantic, while declining in Russia, China, and Korea. Revolutions began to challenge the legitimacy of monarchical and aristocratic power structures, including the structures and beliefs that supported slavery. The Industrial Revolution began during mid-century, leading to radical changes in human society and the environment. Western historians have occasionally defined the 18th century otherwise for the purposes of their work. For example, the "short" 18th century may be defined as 1715–1789, denoting the period of time between the death of Louis XIV of France and the start of the French Revolution, with an emphasis on directly interconnected events. To historians who expand the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
