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An enslaved African narrative is published, detailing the life of a Connecticut enslaved African known as Venture.
1798
A compilation of stories called "A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture" detailed the life of the former Connecticut enslaved African known as Venture (1729-1805). A son of the prince of the Dukandarra tribe, Venture was born into slavery in Guinea, West Africa. His birth name, Broteer, was changed to Venture by his enslaver who brought him to America. Nicknamed "Black Bunyan," Venture worked to purchase his own freedom at the age of thirty-six, and the freedom of his wife, daughter, two sons, and three other enslaved Africans. The narrative described, and possibly exaggerated, the great feats of work that Venture performed, such as carrying a barrel of molasses on his shoulders for two miles. The depiction of the lives of enslaved and free Blacks in eighteenth-century Connecticut was a key element in the narrative.
References:
- • Hornsby, Alton. Chronology of African-American History: Significant Events and People from 1619 to the Present. Detroit: Gale Research, 1995.