A book review by Carl Westmoreland, Senior Historian, National Underground Railroad Freedom Center

The history of the Underground Railroad in the United States is rooted in the soil of Black self-sufficiency. A growing number of Americans and members of the world community are being drawn to the universality of the drama of the struggle of America’s most despised people to become free — slaves. A new book expands and enriches the palette of those ordinary people who composed America’s second revolution. “Making Freedom: The Extraordinary Life of Venture Smith,” by Chandler Saint and George Krimsky, is a book well worth reading and savoring.

It is agreed by most American historians and scholars that the revolution of 1776 was instituted by and for the benefit of white males. While the Revolutionary War was underway, men of African descent were petitioning the Massachusetts legislature to initiate laws that would emancipate. Venture Smith, who had been enslaved in Long Island and Connecticut, was singlehandedly engaged in his own battle to secure emancipation. Born near present-day Ghana and transported as a slave to the Caribbean island of Barbados, Broteer Furro was an anonymous slave for more than 25 years. Before his life’s journey ended, Venture Smith (as he was renamed) purchased his freedom, bought land, and help secure the freedom of other African men.  As a businessman, Smith learned how the American economy worked. And to the highest extent possible, he used that knowledge to earn the respect of his peers — white and black.

Freed from slavery, he became an active and respected member of society in late 18th Century New England, and even narrated his life experience, published in a book entitled Venture Smith, 1729?-1805 A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture, a Native of Africa, but Resident Above Sixty Years in the United States of America. Related by Himself.

Venture Smith’s story is a celebration of the power of the ordinary. What appears to be a predictable rhythm of work of loyalty to family and community left a mark on those who knew or Smith. Venture Smith led no army, he slew no dragons; however, he cleared pieces of rocky land, bought a pew in his church and secured a final resting place — and purchased a granite head stone — for his wife and himself in a white cemetery.

Dr. Krimksy’s and Mr. Saint’s research of the public record resulted in a detailed documentation that defies the redundant excuse that the lives of Africans in America could not be properly researched. The archaeological work at Venture Smith’s grave site was witnessed and monitored by his direct descendants, whose very presence enables us to put a Black face on a family that goes back to America’s founding.

The story of Venture Smith illuminates the lives of ordinary Black men and women who would not be denied personal freedom. Smith was never given a banquet; to our knowledge, no brass band played for him during or after his life. His legacy and his bloodline have been preserved by the existence of men and women who carry his name. Venture Smith’s descendants cooperated with the authors, and it shows: they participated in the telling of an inspiring personal history that allows all Americans to see great, great-great, great-great-great grandsons and daughters of a son of Africa.

What would really make Venture Smith’s story live on would be roundtable discussions between the authors and members of Smith’s family, perhaps on radio or through a television documentary. That would be something special and productive for us all.