Features

29th ANNUAL VENTURE SMITH DAY CELEBRATION

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2025

1:00 P.M. – 4:00 P.M.

EAST HADDAM, CONNECTICUT

EAST HADDAM, CT - The 29th annual Venture Smith Day Connecticut Freedom Trail Celebration will be held on Saturday, September 6th from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. in the First Church Cemetery, 499 Town Street (RT. 151), East Haddam, Connecticut, where Venture Smith (1729-1805) is buried. Please bring a chair or blanket to sit on outside. Refreshments will be served following the event. A new Venture Smith exhibit is on display at the East Haddam Historical Society and Museum, 264 Town Street in East Haddam. The Museum will be open from noon -5:00 pm on Venture Smith Day.

Son of an African king, Venture Smith (Broteer Furro) became the first black man to document his capture from Africa and life as an enslaved person living in colonial Rhode Island, New York, and Connecticut and a successful black freeman in Connecticut. Well- known and respected, Venture Smith spent most of his freedom years in Haddam Neck and East Haddam Connecticut. His grave, at First Church Cemetery in East Haddam, is one of the original sites on the Connecticut Freedom Trail.

Dr. Akeia de Barros Gomes, the Director of the Edward W. Kane and Martha J. Wallace Center for Black History at the Newport Historical Society will present “There's a World of Something in This: Enslavement, Identity, Freedom-Making in Newport, Rhode Island.”  She leads the development and implementation of the Center for Black History at the Wanton-Lyman-Hazard House in Newport, Rhode Island which will open as an exhibition space, educational and community programming space, and a space for scholarship in 2026. She is also a Visiting Scholar and Adjunct Lecturer at Brown University’s Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice.

John Mills, a Trained Genealogist, Independent Scholar, and President of the Alex Breanne Corporation, a Connecticut-based non-profit, will present, “Refocusing the Lens of Reverence.” In his talk about the Black Experience in Connecticut he will highlight the impacts of the erasure and benefits to be gained by sharing untold stories. Mills will also discuss his research and work to change the narrative on how we see the formerly enslaved.

 Dr. John Wood Sweet, Historian and Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will talk about the “The Mysterious Baptism of Venture Mumford in Newport, 1744.” Dr. Sweet, the author of the prize-winning book The Sewing Girl’s Tale, is currently working on a book entitled Venture Smith and the African Roots of the American Republic.

 Dr. Karl P. Stofko, East Haddam’s Municipal Historian and Venture Smith family genealogist since the 1970s, will talk about “The Three Justices of the Peace Who Assisted Venture in His Land Purchases.” Dr. Stofko received the 2022 Award of Merit for Individual Achievement from the Connecticut League of History Organizations (CLHO). Hegraduated from the University of Michigan School of Dentistry and from Gettysburg College. Dr. Stofko practiced dentistry from 1965 to 2016. He is co-author of “A Brief History of East Haddam, Connecticut.”

 Over the years, Dr. Stofko has been the secretary for the East Haddam Historic District Commission and board member for the East Haddam Board of Public Health. He has been the president of the First Church Cemetery Association since 1972. Dr. Stofko is also a member of the Connecticut Freedom Trail Committee and Chairman of the Annual Venture Smith Day Celebrations.

 “The Sisters In Stitches Joined By The Cloth” of eastern Massachusetts will return with their magnificent African American quilts. Venture Smith’s family genealogy and family photos and artifacts from their trip to Ghana will be on display. A Town of East Haddam, Connecticut proclamation will be presented. A wreath-laying ceremony by the descendants of Venture Smith and the annual Venture family reunion photograph will take place in the cemetery by Venture’s grave.

 Adults and children, who are interested in learning more about Connecticut history in the 1700 and 1800s, are encouraged to attend. For questions, please call (860) 873-9375. To review the original Venture Smith autobiography, go to www.docsouth.unc.edu/neh/venture2/menu.html

 Brief Biography of Venture Smith

Born around 1729, Venture Smith’s African birth name was Broteer; and he was the eldest son of King Saungm Furro of the tribe of Dukandarra in Guinea, West Africa. He was captured about 1736 when he was seven years old and sold for “4 gallons of rum and some calico” at Anomabo on Africa’s Gold Coast to Robinson Mumford, the steward of a Rhode Island slave ship commanded by Captain James Collingwood. Broteer was renamed Venture because he was purchased by Mumford’s own private venture. Venture grew up as a slave on Fishers Island, New York, which was being leased by the Mumford family at that time.

 Around 1750 he married Meg, another Mumford slave, and they had four children. After a failed escape attempt in 1754, Venture was sold to Thomas Stanton II of Stonington Point, Connecticut. In 1760, he was purchased for the last time by Oliver Smith, of Stonington. Smith allowed Venture to purchase his freedom in 1765 and in return Venture took the name Smith as his surname.

 Venture then lived and worked on Long Island to raise money to purchase the freedom of his wife and children. During these years he cut wood, farmed, fished, and spent seven months on a whaling voyage. In 1774, Venture sold all his land on Long Island and in Stonington and moved his family to East Haddam, Connecticut. He then began purchasing land on Haddam Neck along the Salmon River Cove from Abel Bingham and others. His farm grew to 134 acres with three houses; twenty boats, canoes and sailing vessels; two fishing businesses and a commercial orchard. His entrepreneurial ventures included river trafficking, lumberjacking, carpentry, and farming. All this he accomplished without the ability to either read or write.

 In 1798, Venture dictated his autobiography to teacher Elisha Niles; it was then published in pamphlet form by Charles Holt, editor of the New London Bee. It has been reprinted many times. It is the only slave narrative of the 18th century that recounts life in Africa. His life story has been an inspiration to many over the years. Venture died on September 19, 1805, a highly respected man by all in the Haddams. Venture’s wife, two sons (Cuff and Solomon), and several grandchildren survived Venture at his death. Several of Venture’s descendants from Cuff’s lineage live in Connecticut today. There are no known descendants from Solomon’s lineage.