Making Freedom

Making Freedom

Author: Chandler B. Saint

Publisher: Wesleyan University Press

Published: 2009-02-26

Total Pages: 201

ISBN-13: 0819568546

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The inspiring story of an 18th-century New England slave who emancipated himself


A Narrative of the Life and Adventure of Venture

A Narrative of the Life and Adventure of Venture

Author: Venture Smith

Publisher: Graphic Arts Books

Published: 2021-12-07

Total Pages: 25

ISBN-13: 1513284770

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A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture (1798) is an autobiography by Venture Smith. Written while Smith was living in freedom on his own farm in Connecticut, A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture is recognized by scholars as a pioneering work of African American nonfiction and one of the earliest known slave narratives in American history. Born the son of Saugnm Furro, a prince of Dukandarra, Smith was captured as a boy and sold into slavery on the Gold Coast of Africa. Brought to Barbados by way of the Middle Passage, Smith was eventually sold to Robinson Mumford, a landowner from Rhode Island. Upon arrival in the British colony, Smith was put to work in the Mumford household, gaining the trust of his enslaver while enduring the abuses of Mumford’s young son. At 22, he married Meg, a fellow enslaved woman, and was soon swept up in an escape attempt with an Irish indentured servant. Betrayed at Montauk Point by the Irishman, Smith was forced to capture him and return to Rhode Island, where he was sold to Thomas Stanton in Connecticut. Separated from his wife and daughter, subjected to worse abuses than before, Smith sought to gain his freedom by any means necessary. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Venture Smith’s A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture is a classic of African American literature reimagined for modern readers.


Venture Smith's Colonial Connecticut

Venture Smith's Colonial Connecticut

Author: Elizabeth J. Normen

Publisher:

Published: 2019-09

Total Pages: 108

ISBN-13: 9780578550626

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In this true story, first published in 1798, Venture Smith tells readers about his capture as a boy in West Africa, survival of the Middle Passage, and dramatic quest to free himself from slavery to become a successful farmer, fisherman, and trader in the American Revolutionary era.


The Freedom Business

The Freedom Business

Author: Marilyn Nelson

Publisher: Boyds Mills Press

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 82

ISBN-13: 9781932425574

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A collection of poems by Marilyn Nelson, accompanied by prose by African slave Venture Smith and watercolor painting by Deborah Dancy.


Venture Smith and the Business of Slavery and Freedom

Venture Smith and the Business of Slavery and Freedom

Author: James Brewer Stewart

Publisher: Univ of Massachusetts Press

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 308

ISBN-13: 9781558497405

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The family, determined to honor the bicentennial of their founding ancestor's death by discovering everything possible about his life, opened burial plots in the hope of recovering DNA for genealogical tracing. What began as a scientific inquiry into African origins rapidly evolved into an interdisciplinary collaboration between historians, literary analysts, geographers, genealogists, anthropologists, political philosophers, genomic biologists, and, perhaps most revealingly, a poet. Their common goal has been to reconstruct the life of an extraordinary African American and to assay its implications for the sprawling, troubled eighteenth-century world of racial exploitation over which he triumphed. From publisher description.


The Shipwreck That Saved Jamestown

The Shipwreck That Saved Jamestown

Author: Lorri Glover

Publisher: Henry Holt and Company

Published: 2008-08-05

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 1429930969

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A freshly researched account of the dramatic rescue of the Jamestown settlers The English had long dreamed of colonizing America, especially after Sir Francis Drake brought home Spanish treasure and dramatic tales from his raids in the Caribbean. Ambitions of finding gold and planting a New World colony seemed within reach when in 1606 Thomas Smythe extended overseas trade with the launch of the Virginia Company. But from the beginning the American enterprise was a disaster. Within two years warfare with Indians and dissent among the settlers threatened to destroy Smythe's Jamestown just as it had Raleigh's Roanoke a generation earlier. To rescue the doomed colonists and restore order, the company chose a new leader, Thomas Gates. Nine ships left Plymouth in the summer of 1609—the largest fleet England had ever assembled—and sailed into the teeth of a storm so violent that "it beat all light from Heaven." The inspiration for Shakespeare's The Tempest, the hurricane separated the flagship from the fleet, driving it onto reefs off the coast of Bermuda—a lucky shipwreck (all hands survived) which proved the turning point in the colony's fortune.


Sea Venture

Sea Venture

Author: Kieran Doherty

Publisher: Macmillan

Published: 2007-05-15

Total Pages: 308

ISBN-13: 9780312354534

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Publisher description


Pathfinders

Pathfinders

Author: Tonya Bolden

Publisher: Abrams

Published: 2017-01-03

Total Pages: 343

ISBN-13: 1613129734

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Discover the lives of 16 extraordinary Black Americans in this engaging collection from Coretta Scott King Honor Award winner Tonya Bolden Untold numbers of Black men and women in America have achieved great things against the odds. In this insightful book, award-winning author Tonya Bolden commemorates the lives of sixteen Black individuals who dared to dream, take risks, and chart courses to success. They were Pathfinders. In these pages you will meet Katherine Johnson, a mathematician who was instrumental in putting U.S. astronauts on the moon; Venture Smith, an African man who was enslaved in America but later bought his own freedom; Richard Potter, a magician whose methods paved the way for entertainers like Harry Houdini; Sissieretta Jones, an opera singer who captivated audiences all over the world with her enchanting voice; James Forten, a powder boy then prisoner of war during the Revolution who grew up to be one of Philadelphia’s leading abolitionists and wealthiest citizens; James McCune Smith, the first Black university-trained physician in the United States; Mary Bowser, a spy during the Civil War; Allen Allensworth, town founder; Clara Brown, one of the first Black women to settle in what would become Colorado; Maggie Lena Walker, the first Black woman to run a bank; Charlie Wiggins, a race car driver; Eugene Bullard, a combat pilot in World War I; Oscar Micheaux, filmmaker; Jackie Ormes, cartoonist; Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander, an economist and attorney who fought for civil rights; and Paul R. Williams, architect of luxury homes and many iconic buildings in Los Angeles.