Lucy Terry Prince:

African American Experiences in Early Rural New England

Prototype Phase 2024, Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association

About this site

We recently completed the prototype phase for a website that explores the long, well-documented life of an African American woman named Lucy Terry Prince. Lucy's experiences, from her birth and captivity in Africa around 1730, to her enslavement in Massachusetts, to her death as a free woman in Vermont in 1821, encompass many of the signal events of the lives of enslaved people in New England. The website is designed as an emotionally engaging, immersive personal narrative supported by contextual, historical material that users can explore in a more user-directed, interactive experience. This project is being developed with our long-time colleagues at the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association and is funded by the NEH.

Lucy's Life - Moments Menu

Lucy’s life story is told via a sequence of interactive episodes called Moments. Visitors can explore Lucy’s story by starting at the beginning when she was captured in West Africa as a young child, or jumping in at any point along the arc of her long biography. The Moments Menu shows her biography at-a-glance and is grouped into broad historical topics

Other Lives

The "Other Lives" feature presents the personal stories of African Americans from early rural New England to compare with Lucy’s life story. These biographies present a variety of lived experiences by people of color in this region and era and support the theme that slavery was not a monolithic experience. These biographies are linked in context to provide targeted contrast with Lucy. For example, in the scene that tells of Lucy’s marriage, visitors can link to biographies of other African Americans from this period who married or who were prevented from marrying, or who were forced to marry against their will.