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    A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture, a Native of Africa, but Resident above Sixty Years in the United States of America, Related by Himself
    A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture, a Native of Africa, but Resident above Sixty Years in the United States of America, Related by Himself
    A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture, a Native of Africa, but Resident above Sixty Years in the United States of America, Related by Himself
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    A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture, a Native of Africa, but Resident above Sixty Years in the United States of America, Related by Himself

    By Venture Smith

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    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateJun 1, 2004
    A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture, a Native of Africa, but Resident above Sixty Years in the United States of America, Related by Himself
    Author

    Venture Smith

    Venture Smith (1729-1805) was an African American writer and former slave. Born Broteer Furro in West Africa, Smith was stolen at the age of six and sold into slavery on the Gold Coast. Purchased by Robinson Mumford of Rhode Island for several gallons of rum and a length of calico, he was renamed “Venture” and put to work at his enslaver’s home. Tortured from a young age by Mumford’s son, Smith attempted to escape in 1754 but was forced to return soon thereafter. Sold to Thomas Stanton in Connecticut, Smith was separated from his wife Meg and daughter Hannah. Abused by Stanton and his brother, Smith forced them to sell him to a slaveowner who would allow him to work for his freedom. In 1765, Smith paid 71 pounds to liberate himself from Oliver Smith, later settling on Long Island and working to pay for his family to join him. Written while Smith was living on his own farm along the Salmon River in Connecticut, A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture (1798) is a groundbreaking work of African American autobiography that has been recognized by scholars as one of the first of its kind by a formerly enslaved person.

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      Venture Smith sounds like a 1930s comic hero! In reality Venture was a native of West Africa born around 1729, who was taken by slave traders as a young boy across the broad waters to work for a master on Long Island. According to Wikipedia, "Out of almost 12 million African captives who embarked on the Middle Passage to the Americas, only about a dozen left behind first-hand accounts of their experiences," making this one of the earliest slave narratives and early writings by an African-American. Considering how old it is, it reads easily enough though is short on detail. In outline it is similar to Roots with the boy snatched from a jungle village by slave traders, abuse and whippings by a cruel master and his capricious white wife, the selling off and breaking up of slave families, and finally able to buy his freedom and establish himself as an independent farmer. There are many tragedies that go by in a sentence or two. It's not really a book, more like a pamphlet presumably produced under the influence of the abolitionist movement.

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    A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture, a Native of Africa, but Resident above Sixty Years in the United States of America, Related by Himself - Venture Smith

    The Project Gutenberg eBook, A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture, a Native of Africa, But Resident above Sixty Years in the United States of America, Related by Himself, by Venture Smith

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    Title: A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture, a Native of Africa, But Resident above Sixty Years in the United States of America, Related by Himself

    Author: Venture Smith

    Release Date: November 13, 2003 [eBook #10075]

    Language: English

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    ***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF VENTURE, A NATIVE OF AFRICA, BUT RESIDENT ABOVE SIXTY YEARS IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, RELATED BY HIMSELF***

    E-text produced by Martin Schub

    Click Here to go to Preface

    Click Here to go to Chapter 1

    Click Here to go to Chapter 2

    Click Here to go to Chapter 3

    Clich Here to go to Certificate

    A

    NARRATIVE

    OF THE

    LIFE AND ADVENTURES

    OF

    VENTURE,

    A NATIVE OF AFRICA,

    But resident above sixty years in the United States of America.

    RELATED BY HIMSELF.

    New London:

    1798.

    PREFACE

    The following account of the life of VENTURE, is a relation of simple facts, in which nothing is in substance to what he relates himself. Many other interesting and curious passages of his life might have been inserted, but on account of the bulk to which they must necessarily have swelled this narrative, they were omitted. If any should suspect the truth of what is here related, they are referred to people now living who are acquainted with most of the facts mentioned in this narrative.

    The reader is here presented with an account, not of a renowned politician or warrior, but of an untutored African slave, brought into this Christian country at eight years of age, wholly destitute of all education but what he received in common with other domesticated animals, enjoying no advantages that could lead him to suppose himself superior to the beasts, his fellow servants. And if he shall enjoy no other advantage from perusing this narrative, he may experience those sensations of shame and indignation, that will prove him to be not wholly destitute of every noble and generous feeling.

    The subject of the following pages, had he received only a common education, might have been a man of high respectability and usefulness; and had his education been suited to his genius, he might have been an ornament and an honor to human nature. It may perhaps, not be unpleasing to see the efforts of a great mind wholly uncultivated, enfeebled and depressed by slavery, and struggling under every disadvantage. The reader may here see a Franklin and a Washington, in a state of nature, or rather, in a state of slavery. Destitute as he is of all education, he still exhibits striking traces of native ingenuity and good sense.

    This narrative exhibits a pattern of honesty, prudence, and industry, to people of his own colour; and perhaps some white people would not find themselves degraded by imitating such an example.

    The following account is published in compliance with the earnest desire of the subject of it, and likewise a number of respectable persons who are acquainted with him.

    CHAPTER I.

    Containing an account of his life, from his birth to the time of his leaving his native country.

    I was born at Dukandarra, in Guinea, about the year 1729. My father's name was Saungm Furro, Prince of the Tribe of Dukandarra. My father had three wives. Polygamy was not uncommon in that country, especially among the rich, as every man was allowed to keep as many wives as he could maintain. By his first wife he had three children. The eldest of them was myself,

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