Mr. and Mrs. Prince: How an Extraordinary Eighteenth-Century Family Moved Out of Slavery and Into Legend

"Mr. and Mrs Prince" is the story of early American slavery, race relations, and tenacity. Yet, unlike many other stories, this one takes place not only in the "free" north, but in the years prior to the Revolutionary War. Tradition asserts that the culture toward slavery was different in the north, but the Prince's story belies that thought. Both began as slaves, in rural areas that had as many black slaves as free whites. Abijah Prince was a veteran of the French and Indian Wars, Lucy Terry Prince was one of the survivors of a devastating Indian raid, and the poem she wrote about it survived, making her the earliest known African American poet. Together, they owned land in Vermont and Massachusetts, and when their white neighbors tried to destroy their crops and steal their land, far from just moving way from the trouble, Lucy went to court to assert their right to that land, arguing her way up to the Supreme Court. The Princes prospered in the early American history, through hard work, persistence, and a refusal to be treated any different that anyone else. (Lucy argued before the admissions board at Williams College that her sons should be allowed to enroll. They weren't allowed, but, here again, the demand for equal treatment was paramount.) Gerzina weaves the story of her research in and out of the Prince's story, showing how she and her husband Anthony pieced together the facts they could find, the discussions they had on interpreting the areas that weren't so clear, and even their eventual connection to the Princes. There are some liberties taken with the history, where motivations or emotions are guessed at, but overall the story is the more important focus. Fun and interesting to read.

Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina is a wonderful writer, & I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the amazingly creative ways she & her husband were able to interpret the sadly spotty record of Abijah & Lucy Prince's lives. But what was lacking was much context. How much did their experience as free blacks differ from their white neighbors'? Did other families in western New England at the time face many of the same personal & financial hardships? Yet while more historical background would have benefited the book, Ms. Gerzina tended to be repetitive, as if she felt she needed to pad her material. In spite of that "Mr. & Mrs. Prince" is well worth reading.

The story of Mr. and Mrs. Prince is incredible. I didn't know anything about them or their legend status until now. Gerzine has done something that few writers have done---seamlessly weave the historical narrative with the actual experience of researching the material. I was drawn in by the dialogue and the meticulous research. Through this book, the author counters our longstanding views of slavery in America during the 18th century. At other times the details provided are in line with the traditional historical records of slavery in America. I couldn't put the book down and often woke up in the middle of night to read another chapter or two and go back to bed. Buy the book, read it, and pass it on to someone else. The story of the Princes' is one that should be read by everyone.

MR. and MRS. PRINCE is an extraordinary achievement. Meticulously researched and engagingly written, it uncovers a fascinating chapter in 18th-century African American literature. The story of the Princes, New England slaves whose trajectory takes them from bondage to farm ownership, is both the story of the struggles of all settlers in the north frontier during the Indian Wars and that of a brave African American couple establishing a life together and raising a large family against seemingly insurmountable odds. Told against the story of how, through painstaking research, the author and her husband were able to piece together the details of the Princes' lives (an adventure in itself), the book blends two fascinating narratives into one. As the narrative interweaves the moving story of the Princes with that of the two researchers indefatigable following every lead, the book lovingly evokes the past and present of a broad section of New England. The result is an extraordinary story of historical recovery and contemporary detective work that displays what couples working together can accomplish through hard work and determination. It is simply impossible to put the book down.

This is a remarkable book in many ways, and I am afraid of seeming to overpraise it. It does indeed, as the jacket promises, provide a uniquely full and vivid account of an eighteenth century family's progress from slavery to freedom and equality within a slave-owning community. The massive research is not obtrusive and in this slim and readable book the author gives us a novelist's understanding of a complex family over several generations. The author recreates the context of rural life amid the warfare and pervasive criminality in which the Mr. and Mrs. Prince became two of the first Americans. It is set in the years in which American national identity was being formed, and a reader comes away with a sense of the fluidity of race and nationality in those times, of complex families composed of blood relations, servants and slaves, of free black owners of indentured servants and white owners who sit at the sickbeds of black slaves; of free blacks whose children are white; of whites who drive blacks off land that they want. The author and her husband, who seems to be a gifted researcher, discovered that their own lives and histories were entwined in surprising ways with their subject, and they kindly let us share in the detective search for lost records, the excitement of discovery, and the surprise of finding their own identities enlarged and enriched. The is a rare case in which the blurbs don't do justice to the book.