DEERFIELD — The Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association has begun a multiyear effort to bring to life a project exploring the experiences of Lucy Terry Prince, the earliest identified African American writer. The work began last Saturday on the first day of Black History Month.

The work will see PVMA launch “Lucy Terry Prince: African American Experiences in Early Rural New England,” a website centered on Prince’s well-documented life, in which she lived in Deerfield for 40 years before moving to southern Vermont, where she died in 1821. The website is expected to launch in 2026.

The project is funded by a $300,000 National Endowment for the Humanities production grant, plus $160,000 in fundraising from PVMA.

PVMA Executive Director Tim Neumann said the award, one of four in this national round of funding, will allow the museum to expand its ever-growing collection of African American history resources, as they continue their goal of telling all perspectives of history in the region.

“We’re proud to be able to make a contribution since there have been generations of western New England people who have kept this story alive,” Neumann said. “We want to honor the fact that people did keep some record of this.”

Over the last 30 years, PVMA has undertaken its “African Americans in Rural New England” project, which explores Black history in early America and tries to share those underrepresented stories.

Terry Prince was born in Africa around 1728 before being abducted and sold into slavery around 1733 in Rhode Island. She was sold to Samuel Terry, who disregarded her African name and named her Lucy Terry. When she was 5, she was sold to Ebenezer and Abigail Wells of Deerfield, according to AmericanCenturies.org, PVMA’s acclaimed website showcasing its collection.

Terry Prince, however, was taught to read and write by the Wells and when she was 16 years old, she composed “Bars Fight,” a ballad poem telling the story of Native Americans who attacked two white families in The Bars area of Deerfield. That poem, the earliest known work of literature by an African American, was preserved orally and was not actually published until 1855, well after her death in 1821.

Terry Prince married Abijah Prince, a free Black man, in 1756 and they lived in Deerfield until the birth of their sixth child, at which time they moved to Guilford, Vermont. She died in 1821 in Sunderland, Vermont, at around the age of 91.

Neumann said the tale of Terry Prince is unique in the fact that it’s a known story, but there were certainly other free Black people living around the country before slavery was outlawed.

“We’re not saying that she’s a heroine because she’s the only one that did this. What’s interesting is that her story was preserved,” Neumann said. “There were contributions made by Black people across the colonies, many of which have been lost track of. … The fact that she was a poet and a storyteller was why she was remembered.”

Focusing on Terry Prince’s story, Neumann said, will allow PVMA to use her as a “focal point” of African American historical themes.

PVMA already has a prototype website created and the grant will fund the production of the website, which will use Terry Prince’s story as a “focal point” to examine the transatlantic slave trade and African American labor’s role in maritime economy; how enslaved people’s desire for independence fueled revolutionary political principles; how African Americans enacted those principles as free citizens and the challenges they faced; and how African Americans’ creativity, humanity and self-determination was expressed.

The website will feature art inspired by graphic artists — with drawings by David Cooper — and be fully interactive in the form of a timeline of her life, which will be presented in an engaging story written by Lesa Cline-Ransome, an award-winning author.

In the National Endowment for the Humanities’ panelist comments, which are anonymous, judges praised PVMA’s proposal for being at the “cutting edge of current scholarship,” while also acknowledging that PVMA “consistently swings above its weight” despite being a small institution.

“Narratives of slavery in the U.S. often focus on the South, so having more emphasis on New England is important,” one judge wrote. “I appreciate that they are using one woman’s story and the stories of those around her to humanize enslaved people and demonstrate their creativity and determination. … It’s creative that they are pulling inspiration from long-form immersive journalism with Lucy’s life as a thread pulling it together.”

For more information about PVMA, as well as access to its historical archives and websites, visit deerfield-ma.org.

“We’re proud of this little organization,” said Neumann, who is entering his 50th year at PVMA.

Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com.