Over the past academic year, history teacher Rhonan Mokriski and his students at the Salisbury School have been pursuing a project-based learning course in public history focused on uncovering the lives of free and enslaved African American families in northwestern Connecticut. This blog chronicles that journey.
By Hurst Thompson ’21, senior at salisbury school
The Venture Smith story immediately stood out to me. Out of around 12 million African captives who embarked on the Middle Passage to the Americas, only about a dozen left behind first-hand accounts of their experiences. One man was Venture Smith. His story is truly remarkable – his defiance against the plague of slavery, his fight for freedom, and his success against all odds make him a hero to me. I want to share the Venture Smith story on a much wider scale.
My fall project was to create a webpage to start doing that. You can learn more about it here.
