DeLauro to Introduce Resolution Proclaiming April 10 Venture Smith’s Independence Day

NEW HAVEN, CT—Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (CT-3) announced today she is introducing a resolution that would proclaim tomorrow, April 10 Venture Smith’s Independence Day. Smith was an African prince who was kidnapped as a boy and enslaved in New England. He was later able to purchase his and his wife’s freedom and became a prominent member of 18th Century Connecticut. Smith eventually recorded his life story A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture.

This month marks the 250th anniversary of Smith regaining his freedom. An estimated 450,000 slaves were brought to North America from the early 17th century until slavery was abolished in 1865. A copy of the resolution can be viewed here.

“Venture Smith was captured as a youth and sent to serve a life of slavery in Connecticut, said DeLauro. “Eventually he purchased his own freedom, and his family’s freedom, and became a prominent citizen. Venture’s life story opens a window into one of the darker chapters in our nation’s history and captures the brutality and oppression of American slavery. Venture’s amazing story of triumph over slavery is an inspiration to us all.”

Last month DeLauro and Chandler Saint, President of the Beecher House Center for the Study of Equal Rights, shared Smith’s story with Mauro-Sheridan School seventh and eighth graders. Last year DeLauro and the Documenting Venture Smith Project distributed a copy of Making Freedom: The Extraordinary Life of Venture Smith to every public and school library in Connecticut.

"This resolution is important," said Saint today. "Venture's story is one for all generations, because slavery remains a scourge to this day.”



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