The Son Of A Virginia Slave Died Two Weeks Ago

Daniel Smith was 90 years old. His father was born into slavery in Virginia in the 1860s.

Daniel Robert Smith was 90 years old when he died on October 19, 2022. He was one of the last remaining children of an enslaved Black American.

Abram “A.B.” Smith was born during the Civil War (in 1862 or 1863) on a plantation in Massies Mill, Virginia. He was enslaved at birth and, after emancipation, he lived in Philadelphia and Poughkeepsie, New York, before settling in Winsted, Connecticut, in the early 1920s. Daniel was born on March 11, 1932, when his father was nearly 70; his mother, Clara Wheeler, gave her age as 23. Abram died in a car accident six years later.

The Washington Post reported in 2020 that Daniel’s brother, then 92 (four years older than Daniel), was still alive.

Also: The last American to collect a Civil War pension ($73.13 a month) died in June 2020.