Robert Smalls
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| Robert Smalls | |
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| In office March 1875 - March 1879, July 1882 - March 1883, and March 1884 - March 1887 |
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| Preceded by | Richard H. Cain |
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| Succeeded by | William Elliott |
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| Born | April 5, 1839 Beaufort, South Carolina |
| Died | February 23, 1915 Beaufort, South Carolina |
| Political party | Republican |
Robert Smalls (April 5, 1839 - February 23, 1915) was an African American slave who became a naval hero at the same time he freed himself and his family in May 1862 from slavery. He was born in Beaufort, South Carolina, United States and became a politician.
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[edit] Biography
As a slave, Robert Smalls was owned by John McKee. [1] Smalls held several jobs in Charleston, SC, and finally began working in the docks. Gradually he learned to be a seaman, and then a pilot, gradually becoming knowledgeable of the Charleston harbor. [1]
[edit] Escape from the Confederacy
In the fall of 1861, Smalls was made helmsman of the Planter, an armed Confederate military transport. On May 12, 1862, the Planter's three white officers were spending the night ashore. Smalls and several other black crewmembers decided to make a run for Union vessels which formed the blockade, in accordance with a plan which Smalls had been discussing with them for some time. They made a stop at a nearby ship to pick Smalls' family and other crewmens' relatives, who had been concealed on that ship for some time.
On 13 May, 1862, Smalls commandeered the Planter. With his wife and children, and a small group of other African Americans hoping to escape slavery, Smalls made a daring escape aboard the Planter out of Charleston harbor. Smalls piloted his ship past the five Confederate forts which guarded the harbor. He then headed straight for the Federal fleet, making sure to first hoist a white flag. The first ship he encountered was USS Onward, which prepared to fire until one sailor noticed the white flag. When the Onward's captain boarded the Planter, Smalls requested to raise the US flag immediately. Smalls turned the Planter over to the United States Navy, along with its onboard stash of weapons and explosives. [1]
[edit] Service to the Union
Because of Smalls' extensive experience in shipyards and with the confederate defenses, he was able to provide valuable assistance to the Union, and joined the United States Navy. Smalls provided valuable intelligence about the defenses of Charleston harbor to Admiral Samuel Dupont, commander of the US Navy ships guarding Charleston.
Smalls became famous as a hero throughout the North. Several newspapers ran articles describing his actions. Congress passed a bill, signed by President Abraham Lincoln awarding a financial reward to Smalls and his crew, and awarded him $1,500 for his valor. Smalls' actions became a major point in favor of allowing blacks to fight for the Union Army.
With the encouragement of Major-General David Hunter, Union commander at Port Royal, Smalls went to Washington, DC to persuade Secretary of War Edwin Stanton to permit blacks to fight for the Union. He was successful, and got an order signed by Stanton permitting 5,000 African-Americans to join the Union forces at Port Royal. This force became the 1st South Carolina Volunteers.
Smalls continued to serve as a pilot for the Union. On April 7, 1863 Smalls piloted ironclad USS Keokuk in a failed Union attack on Fort Sumter. The attack failed, and Keokuk was badly damaged. However, Smalls succeeded in piloting the Keokuk out of the harbor and back to safety, where the crew was rescued shortly before the ship sank.
Smalls returned to his old ship the Planter, now a Union transport. In December 1863, after an act of bravery under fire, Smalls became the first black captain of a vessel in the service of the United States. On December 1, 1863, the Planter was badly damaged by Confederate artillery. The ship's commander, Captain Nickerson, ordered the ship to be surrendered. Smalls refused, saying any blacks would not be treated as prisoners of war, but would be killed by the Confederates. Smalls took command and piloted his ship out of the range of the Confederate guns. For that act, he was made a captain, becoming the first black man to command a United States ship. [1]
[edit] After the War
In 1866 Smalls went into business in Beaufort with Richard Howell Gleaves, opening a store for freedmen (freed slaves).
During Reconstruction, Smalls served in the South Carolina House of Representatives (1865-1870) and in the South Carolina Senate (1871-1874). He was elected to the United States House of Representatives and served from 1875-1879 and 1882-1883 in South Carolina's 5th congressional district, and 1884-1887 in South Carolina's 7th congressional district. Smalls served in the 44th, 45th, and 47th to 49th U.S. Congresses. During consideration of a bill to reduce and restructure the United States Army he introduced an amendment that included this wording, “Hereafter in the enlistment of men in the Army . . . no distinction whatsoever shall be made on account of race or color.” The amendment was not considered.
In 1877, after the Compromise of 1877, and as a part of wide ranging white efforts to mute African American political power and rights, Smalls was illegitimately charged and convicted of taking a bribe five years earlier, in 1872, in connection with the awarding of a printing contract. He was pardoned as part of a deal in which charges were also dropped against Democrats accused of election fraud. [Foner, p. 198]
Smalls remained a political figure into the twentieth century and was a delegate to the 1895 constitutional convention. He spoke out against the disenfranchisement of black voters. With one break in service, Smalls was U.S. Collector of Customs 1889–1911 in Beaufort, S.C., where he lived as owner in the house in which he had been a slave. The Robert Smalls house is now a National Historic Landmark. The desk that Smalls used as Collector of Customs is on display at the Beaufort Arsenal Museum in Beaufort.
He is buried with his family in downtown Beaufort where there is a monument and a sculpture dedicated to his memory.
[edit] Endnotes
- ^ a b c d "The Unstoppable Mr.Smalls", by Gerald Henig, America's Civil War, March 2007.
[edit] References
- Foner, Eric ed., Freedom's Lawmakers: A Directory of Black Officeholders During Reconstruction Revised Edition. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1996). ISBN 0-8071-2082-0. Between 1865 and 1876, about two thousand blacks held elective and appointive offices in the South. A few are relatively well-known, but most have languished in obscurity, omitted from official state histories. Foner profiles more than 1,500 black legislators, state officials, sheriffs, justices of the peace, and constables in this volume.
- Rabinowitz, Howard N. Southern Black Leaders of the Reconstruction Era (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1982) ISBN 0-252-00929-0
