HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION. This work is a stunning achievment. Never before have we had anything approaching a full biography of any early New England slaves. Although historians have been giving us more and better information regarding the prevalence of slavery in the north well into the 19th century, we have only had lists of names, locations, and perhaps records of births, deaths, or transfers of ownership. For both scholars and general readers the unanswered questions have been constant: who were these people?,what did they do?, what could they do?, and what were their lives like? Recent histories have explained how critically important slave trading and slave dependent industries on both sides of the Atlantic were to the economic survival of New England, New York, and the rest of the northern colonies. But now, for the first time, we get a look at real people and their real experiences as opposed to fragmentary facts, statistics, or impersonal generalizations. Gretchen Gerzina (ably assisted by her husband Anthony) spent seven years doing incredibly tedious research in recovering the stories of Lucy and Abijah Prince. The Princes spent the first half of their long lives as slaves in and around Deerfield, Massachusetts. Both were freed during the French and Indian War and then moved to the New Hampshire Grants (present day Vermont). Brevity precludes a full description of their event filled lives, but it's a powerful story about race, slavery, freedom, and the struggle for equality. And it happened here...not "down south" and not somewhere else...HERE. After finishing this wonderful book contact your local secondary school and insist it be accessible to students. Because it happened HERE. And if you're in Vermont take a ride to Hill Farm Road in Sunderland (about 5 miles south of central Manchester) and stand by the little church, wander through the old burial yard, and look across the meadows; this is where Lucy Prince lived her last score of years, where she died, and where she is buried. HERE.
