Political Quotes

“today I wish to commemorate the life of Venture Smith, who passed away nearly 205 years ago on September 19, 1805. A Connecticut man who lived not far from where my home in East Haddam currently stands, Venture Smith's life is one of the best documented of the millions of Africans who were kidnapped from their homes and brought to the Americas as part of the transatlantic slave trade. A remarkable individual of uncommon strength and valor, Venture Smith's compelling story of perseverance in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds still serves as a potent source of inspiration and hope more than two centuries after it happened. Originally born Broteer Furro in 1728--the first son of a West African king--Venture's childhood was cruelly interrupted at the tender age of ten, when he was captured by slave traders, forced to board a crowded slave ship destined for the New World, and sold to Robinson Mumford of Long Island for four barrels of rum and a piece of calico. After more than a decade in the Mumford household, Venture was sold twice more, finally ending up with Colonel Oliver Smith of Stonington, CT, in 1760. In 1798, by that time an elderly man, Venture dictated his life story to Elisha Niles, a Connecticut schoolteacher, who had it published that same year in New London.”