Submitted by Haddam Historical Society
(March 29, 2025) — The Haddam Historical Society will host the official opening of a month-long exhibit of the Venture Smith Display on Saturday, April 26, 2025 at 1:00 p.m. on the grounds of the former Haddam Elementary School, 272 Saybrook Road in Higganum.
One of Haddam’s most important citizens, Venture Smith was kidnapped as a child and sold into slavery. His story is one of tenacity, perseverance and hard work. He was able to buy his freedom at the age of thirty-six and later bought the freedom of his wife, Meg, and of their children.
Ultimately, the family settled in Haddam Neck in 1774 where Smith purchased more than one hundred acres of land and became a successful farmer and fisherman. The international traveling exhibit was developed by the Documenting Venture Smith Project under the Beecher House Center for Equal Rights and the Wilberforce Institute.
Gravestone image provided by Haddam Historical Society
But Venture Smith was not an American citizen nor did he ever claim to be: rather, as his own dictated narrative said “A native of Africa but resident in the United States of America 60 years.”
One can find no tax-exempt org known as the Beecher House Center for Equal Rights on the IRS Charity Search or the State of CT.