Amady Gum's narrative begins with a brief but dense description of his family:

"This is to show what brought me from my native home.

"I was born in Goree, my mother was born in Joloff & my father in Salum. On what I hear from them, was, that they come in Goree when they were young, but that they were slaves there. My father behaves himself very well towards his master, at last his master gave him free, my mother also was with his master & her brother come from Joloff & wanted to pay for his freedom but her master won’t because he love her very much. So she live in Goree until she grow, the first child she got was a boy but we were not one father, at last she born four children & I was the youngest of all, when my mother died."

Gum immediately locates his origins within the culturally diverse milieu of Goree island. His account is revealing, despite its brevity. The fact that his parents were enslaved as children and lived their entire lives on Goree is a reminder that the slave population was a stable element within society. The different experiences of his parents highlights the gendered aspect of slavery: his father was able to earn his freedom, but his mother was unable to presumably because of her greater reproductive value.