Venture Smith

“ Being after this labor forty years of age, I worked at various places, and in particular on Ram-Island, which I purchased Solomon and Cuff, two sons of mine, for two hundred dollars each.
It will here be remembered how much money I earned by cutting wood in four years. Besides this I had considerable money, amounting in all to near three hundred pounds. After this I purchased a negro man, for no other reason than to oblige him, and gave him sixty pounds. ”

“ I gave forty pounds for her.
During my residence at Long-Island, I raised one year with another, ten cart loads of water-melons, and lost a great many every year besides by the thievishness of the sailors. What I made by the water-melons I sold there, amounted to nearly five hundred dollars. Various other methods I in order to enable me to redeem my family. In the night-time I fished with set-nets and pots for eels and lobsters, and shortly after went a whaling voyage in the service of Col. Smith. After being seven months, the vessel returned, laden with four hundred barrels of oil. ”

“ I employed her mostly in the wood trade to Rhode-Island, and made clear of all expenses above one hundred dollars with her in better than one year. I had then become something forehanded, and being in my forty-fourth year, I purchased my wife Meg, and thereby prevented having another child to buy, as she was then pregnant. ”