Blumenthal & DeLauro Introduce Venture Smith Freedom Day Resolution
[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and U.S. Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) introduced a resolution to honor the life and legacy of Venture Smith, a former enslaved person who purchased his family’s freedom and became a successful landowner, businessperson, and author in Connecticut.
Born free in 1729 in West Africa, Smith was seized from his home at only ten years old and enslaved in New England. After 26 years of brutal enslavement, Smith purchased his freedom in 1765 and then worked to free his family from the bondage of slavery as well. Smith and his family relocated to East Haddam, Connecticut in 1775 where he went on to own more than 130 acres and establish a farm and trading business. In 1798, Smith became the first African American to write and publish his own autobiography in which he wrote, “My freedom is a privilege which nothing else can equal.”
Venture Smith died a free man on September 19, 1805 and is buried in the graveyard of the First Congregational Church in East Haddam.
To recognize the 257th anniversary of Smith purchasing his freedom, the resolution designates April 10 as, “Venture Smith Freedom Day” and honors Smith’s legacy as, “a successful landowner, businessman, and author in the United States, generations before Black Americans began to obtain constitutional, legal, social, and economic rights.”
The House and Senate introduced identical legislation.
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