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Robert Smalls (April 5, 1839 – February 23, 1915) was an American businessman, publisher, and politician. Born into slavery in Beaufort, South Carolina, he freed himself, his crew and their families during the American Civil War by commandeering a Confederate transport ship, CSS Planter, in Charleston harbor, on May 13, 1862, and sailing it from Confederate-controlled waters of the harbor to the U.S. blockade that surrounded it. He then piloted the ship to the Union-controlled enclave in Beaufort-Port Royal-Hilton Head area, where she became a Union warship. His example and persuasion helped convince President Abraham Lincoln to accept African-American soldiers into the Union Army.
After the American Civil War he returned to Beaufort and became a politician, winning election as a Republican to the South Carolina State legislature and the United States House of Representatives during the Reconstruction era. Smalls authored state legislation providing for South Carolina to have the first free and compulsory public school system in the United States. He founded the Republican Party of South Carolina. Smalls was the last Republican to represent South Carolina's 5th congressional district until 2010.
After the American Civil War he returned to Beaufort and became a politician, winning election as a Republican to the South Carolina State legislature and the United States House of Representatives during the Reconstruction era. Smalls authored state legislation providing for South Carolina to have the first free and compulsory public school system in the United States. He founded the Republican Party of South Carolina. Smalls was the last Republican to represent South Carolina's 5th congressional district until 2010.
Robert Smalls - Wikipedia
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American History
Civil War
Slavery
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In 1862, Robert Smalls, an enslaved crew-member of the CSS Planter, steals the boat, sails it past the heavily armed defenses of Charleston Harbor in South C...
Thank you, my friend Maj Marty Hogan for making us aware that April 5 is the anniversary of the birth of enslaved African American Robert Smalls who, during and after the American Civil War, gained freedom and became a ship's pilot, sea captain, and politician. He freed himself, his crew and their families from slavery.
From my Civil War daily post of May 13: 1862: Charleston, South Carolina - Robert Smalls, a slave who is also a trained and licensed harbor pilot in Charleston Harbor escaped bondage along with a number of his friends and their families. The CSS Planter, a speedy, shallow-draft steamer, had been appropriated by the Confederate Navy and equipped with two swivel guns and used for transport duties around the intercoastal waterways near Charleston. After Smalls and some of his shipmates pick up their wives and children at another wharf, they steam into the night, blasting the steam whistle signals at the appropriate intervals as they pass Ft. Johnson, then Ft. Sumter, and then past Ft. Wagner at the mouth of the harbor, and Rebel signalmen begin to suspect something is wrong. Smalls pilots the Planter toward the USS Onward, with a white flag at the fore. Lt. Nickels of the Onward comes on board and hoists the U.S. colors on the Rebel vessel. Smalls and the Planter, supplemented by a small prize crew from the USS Augusta, steams to Port Royal and reports to Commodore John Dahlgren, who praises Smalls’ enterprise—and praises Smalls as "superior to any who has yet come into the lines, intelligent as many of them have been."
Rest in peace Robert Smalls!
Image: 05-13-1862_CSS Planter
Background from biography.com/people/robert-smalls-9486288
"Robert Smalls was an enslaved African American who became a politician, serving in both the South Carolina legislature and the U.S. House of Representatives.
Synopsis
Robert Smalls was an enslaved African American who escaped to freedom in a Confederate supply ship and eventually became a sea captain for the Union Navy. After the war, he became a successful businessman and politician serving in both houses of the South Carolina legislature. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1875 but was convicted of taking a bribe while in the state senate and sentenced to prison before he was pardoned by the governor.
Early Life
Robert Smalls was born to a house slave, Lydia Polite, in Beaufort, South Carolina, on April 5, 1839. The identity of his father is not officially known, but believed to be Henry McKee, the son of the plantation’s owner. Smalls was raised in the McKee house and enjoyed a little more acceptance in the community. On several occasions he ignored the night curfew for blacks and stayed out with his white companions, much to his mother’s lament.
When Smalls was 12, the McKee family moved to Charleston, where Smalls was hired as a day laborer on the waterfront, working as a rigger and eventually a sailor. In 1856, he married Hannah Jones, a slave hotel maid who worked in Charleston. Jones already had one daughter, and together she and Smalls had a daughter and a son, Robert Jr., who later died of smallpox. Smalls's attempts to buy his wife and family out of slavery failed.
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Gunboat Deckhand
At the outbreak of the Civil War, in March 1861, Robert Smalls was hired as a deckhand on the Confederate supply ship the Planter, a converted cotton steamer that carried supplies between forts in Charleston Harbor. Over the course of several months, Smalls learned all he could about navigating the ship and waited for an opportunity to escape.
A Daring Escape
In the predawn hours of May 13, 1862, while the white officers and crew slept in Charleston, Smalls and a crew of eight men, along with five women, and three children (including Smalls's wife and two children), quietly slipped the Planter out of Charleston Harbor. Over the next few hours, Smalls successfully navigated the ship through five checkpoints, offering the correct signal to pass each, and then headed out to open waters and the Union blockade. It was daring and dangerous, and if caught, the crew was prepared to blow up the vessel.
The startled crew of the USS Onward, the first ship in the blockade to spot the Planter, almost fired on it before Smalls had the Confederate flag struck and raised a white bed sheet, signaling surrender. The ship’s treasure of guns, ammunition, and important documents proved to be a wealth of information, telling the Union commanders of shipping routes, mine locations and the times that Confederate ships docked and departed.
Wartime Hero and Spokesperson
The story of the courageous escape of Robert Smalls became a national phenomenon and was one of the factors encouraging President Abraham Lincoln to authorize free African Americans to serve in the Union military. Congress bestowed a $1,500 cash prize on Smalls, and he went on a speaking tour, recounting his heroics and recruiting African Americans to serve in the Union Army. During the rest of the war, Smalls balanced his role as a spokesperson and Union Navy captain on the Planter and the ironclad USS Keokuk, conducting 17 missions in and around Charleston.
Postwar Life in Business and Politics
After the war, Robert Smalls was commissioned as a brigadier general in the South Carolina militia and purchased his former owner’s house in Beaufort, South Carolina. He generously took in some of the McKee family, who were destitute. Smalls started a general store, a school for African American children and a newspaper. His success opened doors in politics, and soon he served as a delegate to the state’s constitutional convention and was elected to both the South Carolina House of Representatives and the State Senate. Between 1874 and 1879, served in the United States House of Representatives, but his tenure was marred by partisan accusations that he took a $5,000 bribe while in the state senate. In 1877 Smalls was convicted of the offense and sentenced to three years in prison. Smalls was released pending his appeal, however, and in 1879 he was pardoned by the governor.
Later Life
After his first wife’s death in 1883, Robert Smalls remarried in 1890. He served as a U.S. Customs collector in Beaufort from 1889 to 1911 and remained active in politics. Smalls died of natural causes in his Beaufort home on February 23, 1915, at age 75."
In 1862, Robert Smalls, an enslaved crew-member of the CSS Planter, steals the boat, sails it past the heavily armed defenses of Charleston Harbor in South Carolina and delivers it into the hands of the Union forces further out. The bold act makes Smalls a hero in the North, an outlaw throughout the Confederacy and a powerful symbol of hope and freedom to the enslaved people of the South.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IW6EQ7QkCC8
FYI LTC Stephen C. LTC (Join to see) Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen Lt Col Charlie Brown Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. Maj William W. "Bill" Price Maj Marty Hogan SCPO Morris Ramsey SFC William Farrell SGT Mark Halmrast Sgt Randy Wilber Sgt John H. SGT Gregory Lawritson CPL Dave Hoover SPC Margaret Higgins SSgt Brian Brakke 1stSgt Eugene Harless SSG William Jones SSG Diane R.
From my Civil War daily post of May 13: 1862: Charleston, South Carolina - Robert Smalls, a slave who is also a trained and licensed harbor pilot in Charleston Harbor escaped bondage along with a number of his friends and their families. The CSS Planter, a speedy, shallow-draft steamer, had been appropriated by the Confederate Navy and equipped with two swivel guns and used for transport duties around the intercoastal waterways near Charleston. After Smalls and some of his shipmates pick up their wives and children at another wharf, they steam into the night, blasting the steam whistle signals at the appropriate intervals as they pass Ft. Johnson, then Ft. Sumter, and then past Ft. Wagner at the mouth of the harbor, and Rebel signalmen begin to suspect something is wrong. Smalls pilots the Planter toward the USS Onward, with a white flag at the fore. Lt. Nickels of the Onward comes on board and hoists the U.S. colors on the Rebel vessel. Smalls and the Planter, supplemented by a small prize crew from the USS Augusta, steams to Port Royal and reports to Commodore John Dahlgren, who praises Smalls’ enterprise—and praises Smalls as "superior to any who has yet come into the lines, intelligent as many of them have been."
Rest in peace Robert Smalls!
Image: 05-13-1862_CSS Planter
Background from biography.com/people/robert-smalls-9486288
"Robert Smalls was an enslaved African American who became a politician, serving in both the South Carolina legislature and the U.S. House of Representatives.
Synopsis
Robert Smalls was an enslaved African American who escaped to freedom in a Confederate supply ship and eventually became a sea captain for the Union Navy. After the war, he became a successful businessman and politician serving in both houses of the South Carolina legislature. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1875 but was convicted of taking a bribe while in the state senate and sentenced to prison before he was pardoned by the governor.
Early Life
Robert Smalls was born to a house slave, Lydia Polite, in Beaufort, South Carolina, on April 5, 1839. The identity of his father is not officially known, but believed to be Henry McKee, the son of the plantation’s owner. Smalls was raised in the McKee house and enjoyed a little more acceptance in the community. On several occasions he ignored the night curfew for blacks and stayed out with his white companions, much to his mother’s lament.
When Smalls was 12, the McKee family moved to Charleston, where Smalls was hired as a day laborer on the waterfront, working as a rigger and eventually a sailor. In 1856, he married Hannah Jones, a slave hotel maid who worked in Charleston. Jones already had one daughter, and together she and Smalls had a daughter and a son, Robert Jr., who later died of smallpox. Smalls's attempts to buy his wife and family out of slavery failed.
ADVERTISEMENT
Gunboat Deckhand
At the outbreak of the Civil War, in March 1861, Robert Smalls was hired as a deckhand on the Confederate supply ship the Planter, a converted cotton steamer that carried supplies between forts in Charleston Harbor. Over the course of several months, Smalls learned all he could about navigating the ship and waited for an opportunity to escape.
A Daring Escape
In the predawn hours of May 13, 1862, while the white officers and crew slept in Charleston, Smalls and a crew of eight men, along with five women, and three children (including Smalls's wife and two children), quietly slipped the Planter out of Charleston Harbor. Over the next few hours, Smalls successfully navigated the ship through five checkpoints, offering the correct signal to pass each, and then headed out to open waters and the Union blockade. It was daring and dangerous, and if caught, the crew was prepared to blow up the vessel.
The startled crew of the USS Onward, the first ship in the blockade to spot the Planter, almost fired on it before Smalls had the Confederate flag struck and raised a white bed sheet, signaling surrender. The ship’s treasure of guns, ammunition, and important documents proved to be a wealth of information, telling the Union commanders of shipping routes, mine locations and the times that Confederate ships docked and departed.
Wartime Hero and Spokesperson
The story of the courageous escape of Robert Smalls became a national phenomenon and was one of the factors encouraging President Abraham Lincoln to authorize free African Americans to serve in the Union military. Congress bestowed a $1,500 cash prize on Smalls, and he went on a speaking tour, recounting his heroics and recruiting African Americans to serve in the Union Army. During the rest of the war, Smalls balanced his role as a spokesperson and Union Navy captain on the Planter and the ironclad USS Keokuk, conducting 17 missions in and around Charleston.
Postwar Life in Business and Politics
After the war, Robert Smalls was commissioned as a brigadier general in the South Carolina militia and purchased his former owner’s house in Beaufort, South Carolina. He generously took in some of the McKee family, who were destitute. Smalls started a general store, a school for African American children and a newspaper. His success opened doors in politics, and soon he served as a delegate to the state’s constitutional convention and was elected to both the South Carolina House of Representatives and the State Senate. Between 1874 and 1879, served in the United States House of Representatives, but his tenure was marred by partisan accusations that he took a $5,000 bribe while in the state senate. In 1877 Smalls was convicted of the offense and sentenced to three years in prison. Smalls was released pending his appeal, however, and in 1879 he was pardoned by the governor.
Later Life
After his first wife’s death in 1883, Robert Smalls remarried in 1890. He served as a U.S. Customs collector in Beaufort from 1889 to 1911 and remained active in politics. Smalls died of natural causes in his Beaufort home on February 23, 1915, at age 75."
In 1862, Robert Smalls, an enslaved crew-member of the CSS Planter, steals the boat, sails it past the heavily armed defenses of Charleston Harbor in South Carolina and delivers it into the hands of the Union forces further out. The bold act makes Smalls a hero in the North, an outlaw throughout the Confederacy and a powerful symbol of hope and freedom to the enslaved people of the South.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IW6EQ7QkCC8
FYI LTC Stephen C. LTC (Join to see) Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen Lt Col Charlie Brown Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. Maj William W. "Bill" Price Maj Marty Hogan SCPO Morris Ramsey SFC William Farrell SGT Mark Halmrast Sgt Randy Wilber Sgt John H. SGT Gregory Lawritson CPL Dave Hoover SPC Margaret Higgins SSgt Brian Brakke 1stSgt Eugene Harless SSG William Jones SSG Diane R.
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