February 12, 2021
Celebrate Black History Month
Venture Smith
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Most people will recognize the name, Fredrick Douglass, former slave turned activist, orator, and writer. His autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, recounts his life as a slave and his desire to become a free man.
Fewer people will recognize the name Venture Smith who, born almost a century earlier, also recounted his life as a slave with the ambition to become a free man in his autobiography, A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture, a Native of Africa: But Resident above Sixty Years in the United States of America. Related by Himself. According to John Wood Sweet, PhD., writing for connecticuthistory.org, "Out of almost 12 million African captives who embarked on the Middle Passage to the Americas, only about a dozen left behind first-hand accounts of their experiences." Since Smith was not literate it is widely believed that he dictated his life story to a local school teacher.
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(Image above left) Title Page "A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture Smith, a Native of Africa, but Resident above Sixty Years in the United States of America. Related by Himself." New London: Printed in 1798. Reprinted A. D. 1835, and Published by a Descendant of Venture. Revised and Republished with Traditions by H. M. Selden, Haddam, Conn., 1896.
(Image above right) Venture Smith’s first real-estate purchase in East Haddam, 1775 – Digitized by Cameron Blevins from the land records of the town of Haddam, courtesy of connecticuthistory.org.
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Originally published in New London, CT in 1798, Smith's narrative begins by recounting his early childhood days in Africa, his capture and his voyage across the Atlantic on a slave ship. He continues on to give an account of his years as a slave in southern New England and finishes by relating his life experiences as a free man, farmer and successful business man in Haddam Neck, Connecticut. Much of the book's narrative has been supported by archeological findings at the Venture Smith archeology site on Haddam Neck. |
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Venture Smith died in 1805 and was buried in the graveyard of the First Congregational Church in East Haddam along with his wife and other members of his family. His grave stone reads “Sacred to the Memory of Venture Smith, African. Tho the son of a King he was kidnapped and sold as a slave but by his industry he acquired Money to Purchase his Freedom who Died Sept 19th 1805 in 77th Year of his Age” His grave site is a stop on the CT Freedom Trail.
(Image left Venture Smith's headstone - David C. Nelson
Read A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture, a Native of Africa: But Resident above Sixty Years in the United States of America. Related by Himself, Venture Smith's autobiography online or listen to it being read by Bill Boerst.
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