Bars Fight from Lucy Terry

"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, Massachusetts, called "The Bars," which was a colonial term for a meadow. The poem was preserved orally and not published until the November 20, 1854, issue of The Springfield Daily Republican, as an excerpt from the book History of Western Massachusetts published the following year (1855) by Republican associate editor Josiah Gilbert Holland. [ https://archive.org/details/historyofwestern02holluoft/page/360/mode/2up?q=bars]

"Bars Fight" is believed to be the oldest known work of literature by an African American and is the only known work by Lucy Terry.

After the word "slay", an alternate oral transmission of the poem offers an accurate location and body count: "Twas nigh unto Sam Dickson's mill / The Indians there five men did kill." [ https://www.jstor.org/stable/44176226]

TEXT

https://aalbc.com/tc/blogs/entry/348-bars-fight-from-lucy-terry/

OR

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 behold. Eleazer Hawks was killed outright, Before he had time to fight,— Before he did the Indians see, Was shot and killed immediately. Oliver Amsden he was slain, Which caused his friends much grief and pain. Simeon Amsden they found dead, Not many rods distant from his head. Adonijah Gillett we do hear Did lose his life which was so dear. John Sadler fled across the water, And thus escaped the dreadful slaughter. Eunice Allen see the Indians coming, And hopes to save herself by running, And had not her petticoats stopped her, The awful creatures had not catched her, Nor tommy hawked her on her head, And left her on the ground for dead. Young Samuel Allen, Oh lack-a-day! Was taken and carried to Canada.

"Bars Fight" as published in The Springfield Daily Republican, November 20, 1854