Hartford — Displays telling the remarkable story of Venture Smith, who worked his way out of slavery to become a successful entrepreneur in colonial southeastern Connecticut, will be among the 80,000 square feet of exhibits being created for the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture, set to open in the nation’s capital on Sept. 24.

“His story will be part of a larger exhibit on slavery, part of the story we tell about slavery in New England,” Rex Ellis, associate director for curatorial affairs at the new museum, which is being built on the National Mall near the Washington Monument, said Friday.

“Our whole objective in this exhibit is to talk about the depth and breadth of slavery," he said. "Slavery has a diverse background, and Venture’s story helps us tell that diverse story and understand what slavery was like in New England.”

Ellis made his remarks as part of his keynote address during the second of a two-day conference on Venture Smith and slavery in the past and present.

The conference, hosted by the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection at its main office, was organized by the Beecher House Center for the Study of Equal Rights in Torrington and the Wilberforce Institute for the Study of Slavery and Emancipation in Hull, England.

The event is part of the Documenting Venture Smith project.

DEEP’s involvement stems from the location of one of the places Smith lived and worked, now the site of the DEEP-owned Barn Island Wildlife Management Area in Stonington.

Smith, born around 1729 in Africa, was captured at age 12 and taken on a slave ship to Rhode Island.

He worked as a slave on a farm on Fishers Island for several years before being sold to Thomas Stanton of Stonington, then to Oliver Smith Jr. of Stonington.

Over a five-year period, he earned enough money through farming, fishing, hunting and doing other work during his spare time to buy his own freedom from Oliver Smith.

Ultimately, by the time of his death in 1805, he had purchased the freedom of his wife and children and had become owner of a prosperous farm in East Haddam, at the site of the former Connecticut Yankee nuclear power plant.

His autobiography, published in New London in 1798, is considered one of the earliest known written works by an African-American.

“What a story,” Ellis said. “What a journey. What a man. What a legacy.”

Ellis said he first learned about Venture Smith while working as an interpreter at Colonial Williamsburg in the 1980s.

But at that time, Smith was more a legend than a real man, Ellis said, “the quintessential Paul Bunyan character known for his feats of strength.”

Smith’s narrative, he said, “was known to have existed, but it hadn’t been mined” for the wealth of first-hand experiences it related about what it was like to be a slave and then a free black man in the 18th century.

Over the last decade, thanks to the work of historians including Chandler B. Saint, co-director of the Documenting Venture Smith Project, Smith’s story has become more widely known and appreciated as a significant chapter in African-American history.

Ellis said Saint visited directors of the new museum about two years ago, as the exhibits were being conceived, and made a convincing case that Venture Smith’s story should be included.

Ellis said the 350,000-square-foot museum will tell the story of African Americans from slavery to the Civil War, to their role in the military and the arts, the Civil Rights Movement, and the election and re-election of President Obama.

“It will celebrate and revel in the history of African Americans and acknowledge the global reach of African Americans,” he said. “And it will serve as a lens for all Americans to understand what it means to be an American.”

j.benson@theday.com