In case you don't know the history of Robert Smalls, you definitely should.

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Robert Smalls was born a slave in 1839.
His mom, Lydia, was a house slave, but had grown up working in the fields. Robert was the son of (most likely) his owner, John Mckee, or his 1/?

son, Henry. Because of this, Robert was given special treatment. He worked and lived in the house. Lydia saw how soft he was getting, and arranged to have him sent to the fields to work. While there, he witnessed the realities of slavery. He saw a slave beaten at the whipping 2/

post. This changed Robert, fundamentally. He became angry and defiant. He went to the Beaufort SC Jail (oh yeah, he's from Beaufort SC). Anyway, his mother became fearful that he would get in worse trouble if he stayed on the plantation, so she arranged for him to be sent to 3/

Charleston SC to be rented out for work. He would keep $1 of his wages, and the rest would go back to the master. He was extremely smart, and resourceful, and worked a variety of jobs in Charleston. Most of them involved Charleston Harbor, which he learned like the back of his 4/

hand. His knowledge of the harbor landed him a job on the CSS Planter, a Confederate steamer that hauled cargo around. He also met his soon-to-be wife, Hannah around the same time. She was a slave who worked at the hotel where he was living in Charleston. They were given 5/

permission to marry, and have an apartment together. They had 2 kids, Elizabeth and Robert Jr. Hanna was owned by the Kingman family, and after working for a while, Robert asked Mr Kingman if he could buy his family (his kids are Mr Kingman's slaves, too). Kingman agrees, but 6/

tells him it will cost $800. Robert has $100. Realizing it would take him a long time to accumulate enough money to buy their freedom, Robert decides to escape, and take his family with him. Robert and a few other slaves worked the Planter enough, that they were usually given 7/

the day to day duties of actually making the Planter go. Robert was extremely well trusted, and would often pilot the steamer around the harbor. Because of his race, he couldn't be a wheelman, but he basically was. On the night of May 12, Captain Rylea (who looked similar to 8/

Robert) and the rest of the crew, went ashore, and left Robert, and the rest of the slaves in charge of looking after the Planter (Rylea could be court martialed if he was caught doing this. He trusted Robert THAT much ). Around 2am, Robert's plan began: take the Planter 9/

Go pick up his family, along with the families of the rest of the crew at a rendezvous point, use his knowledge of a) Charleston Harbor, b) How pilot the Planter, and c) The necessary hand signals to show the Confederate forts (Sumter and Johnson) so he can leave the harbor. 10/

It wasn't until after they got out of gun range that the Confederates even realized what had happened, and sounded the alarm
Robert's wife brought a white bedsheet, and they lowered the Confederate and SC flags, and replaced them with the makeshift white flag and 11/

approached the Union blockade. At first, the Union ship, the USS Onward, thought the Planter was a threat, and had actually started getting the guns ready to fire. Fortunately, it was almost sunrise by this time, so there was enough light for the Onward to see the "flag" the 12/

Planter was flying was a white one (surrender), and allowed them to approach. It just so happened the Planter was carrying 6-8 really nice cannons/guns and 200 rounds of ammo which Robert turned over to the Union. He also gave them first hand intelligence on locations of 13/

Strengths and weaknesses, ship movements, etc. He lobbied the Sec of War Edwin Stanton to enlist black soldiers in the Union Army, which a few months later, Lincoln made reality. It's said Robert recruited 5,000 black soldiers by himself. Robert was made pilot of the Planter 14/

and during a particularly nasty battle, took command when the ship's white Captain ran and hid in the coal room. After that, he was promoted to Captain himself. He was paid $150/ month, which made him one of, if not the highest paid black man fighting the Civil War. After the 15/

war was over, being a war hero, escaped slave, husband, father, and overall badass wasn't enough for Robert, so he settled in Beaufort, and decided to run for office. First, he was elected to both the State Assembly of SC, and also the State Senate, then he served 5 terms in 16/

The US House of Representatives between 1874 and 1886. He was a lifelong advocate for the equality of African Americans. He died in Beaufort SC in his master's old house, which he purchased after the war, in 1915 at the age of 75. 17/18

“My race needs no special defense for the past history of them and this country. It proves them to be equal of any people anywhere. All they need is an equal chance in the battle of life.”

-Robert Smalls 1839-1915
American Hero

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