[3] Born a slave on a plantation in Northumberland County, Virginia, Smith escaped in 1838, rowing across the Chesapeake Bay with two other fugitives in a canoe.

After stops in New Castle, Philadelphia, and New York City and with the aid of abolitionists such as David Ruggles, Smith gained safety in Springfield, Massachusetts, via the Underground Railroad.

In Massachusetts, he became a founding member of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and attended Wilbraham Academy.

[2][4] In 1842, Smith married Emmeline Minerva Platt and settled in Norwich, Connecticut, where he became a Methodist Episcopal minister and established a successful shoemaking business.

His daughters, Louie and Emma, attended Norwich Free Academy and became teachers, while his son, James H. Smith, became a shoemaker like his father.