Robert Smalls: Actor In Eluding Slavery In South Carolina

Robert Small: Actor In Eluding Slavery In South Carolina Robert Smalls eludes slavery by steering the Confederate warship CSS Planter to the Union blockade 160 years ago today in 1862. Robert was born in 1839 in Beaufort, South Carolina. Henry Mckee, his white master, was also his father. Henry treated his son better than the other slaves, teaching him and allowing him to master vocations and skills that he enjoyed. Robert was fascinated with ships and sailing from a young age. His father farmed him out to others in Charleston port, and he worked as a longshoreman, rigger, sail builder, and eventually became a wheelman and pilot, an accomplishment no other slave had achieved. Robert’s goal was to save enough money to buy freedom for his wife and children when he was 17 years old. His father also allowed him to keep some of the wages from being hired out. This procedure, however, would be gradual and take decades. Smalls was assigned to pilot/steer the CSS Planter, a lightly equipped troop transport, when the war between South Carolina and the United States of America broke out in 1861. For the first year of the war, he performed admirably and won the respect and faith of the Planter’s crew and owners. Smalls became aware that a blockading Union fleet was approaching Charleston harbor and devised a plan to depart with his family. The Planter landed in Charleston on May 12th, 1862, and the white officers disembarked, leaving the slave crew to sleep onboard as usual. Smalls donned a Confederate officer’s uniform and began steering the ship out of the harbor on May 13th, putting his plan into motion with the other slaves. Smalls used the signals he knew to sail past five forts with various checkpoints in Charleston harbor, which was the most defended harbor in the world at the time. The slave crew picked up their wives and children at a rendezvous point along the road. The danger was not finished once they got passed the Confederate fortifications, and the slaves were worried that the Union would assault their ship. When the USS Onward sighted the Planter, it readied to fire. An officer observed a white flag on the Planter and ordered a cease-fire as the cannons were being sighted, loaded, and about to be lighted. As the Planter reached the Onward, the slaves on board were seen hugging and dancing in joy, believing they were secure. “Good morning, sir!” said Robert Smalls, removing his hat and shouting at the Union officer. Sir, I’ve brought you some old American firearms!’ Democrats who were angry with his ascension threatened his life on several occasions. Smalls was targeted with offenses once the Union occupation ended and Democrats reclaimed control of South Carolina’s local institutions, and he was imprisoned at one time. Despite being hampered by South Carolina’s political machinery, Smalls was an effective legislator. Small’s plan was to buy his father’s old house and live there with his family. He would remain a well-known public figure until his death in 1915, at the age of 75, from natural causes.