http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2p15.html
Critics now agree that the African American poetic tradition began with the 1855 publication of "Bars Fight," written by former slave Lucy Terry. Terry was born in Africa and was captured and eventually sold to Ebenezer Wells of Deerfield , Massachusetts . Her future husband, Obijah Prince, purchased her freedom in 1756 and they moved to Guilford , Vermont in 1760 where Terry gained a reputation as a public speaker and proponent of abolition.
"Bars Fight" recounts the events of an Indian attack that actually occurred in Deerfield in 1746, and while there is nothing in the structure or style of the poem to elevate it above the mundane, it is an excellent example of the orality in transition from spoken to written word:
August, 'twas the twenty-fifth,
Seventeen hundred forty-six,
The Indians did in ambush lay,
Some very valient [sic] men to slay,
The names of whom I'll not leave out: (1-5)
The fact that Terry selects a fairly recent event in the life of her community is important because storytelling is a primary facet of the griot tradition, and because it reflects her use of the Sasa, where the most important events are those events that live within the memory of the community.