Early Life
Venture Smith was born Broteer Furro in a place he recalls as Dukandarra in "Guinea"--a term that at the time referred to much of West Africa. Clues in the narrative make it clear that he was from the savannah region — and the fact that he was sold at the seaport of Anomabu, in modern Ghana, suggests that he was probably originally from somewhere in what is now Ghana, Togo, or Benin. He was the son of a prince who had several wives.
As a young child, he was kidnapped by a tribe of Africans who were employed by slave dealers. The boy was purchased by Robertson Mumford for four gallons of rum and a piece of calico. Mumford decided to call him Venture because he considered purchasing him to be a business venture. Venture was taken aboard a ship that sailed to Barbados.
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Famous quotes related to early life:
“Many a woman shudders ... at the terrible eclipse of those intellectual powers which in early life seemed prophetic of usefulness and happiness, hence the army of martyrs among our married and unmarried women who, not having cultivated a taste for science, art or literature, form a corps of nervous patients who make fortunes for agreeable physicians ...”
—Sarah M. Grimke (1792–1873)