The life of Robert Smalls (1839 1915)

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

Swonga

Meets & marries Hannah Jones, 1856 First child born, 1858 Arrangement with Hannahs master Both Robert and Hannah are working to save money.

Robert and Hannah have a son, Robert Jr. Slaves escape on a barge in April. The war is dragging on. As wheelman, Robert knows Charleston Harbor, the signal codes, and the lay of the mines. Momma is free in Beaufort. Roberts freedom is just seven miles away!

Admiral Du Pont wrote,

. . . The pilot is quite intelligent and gave some valuable information about the abandonment of Stono. . .

That boat that the seven ni**ers captured down to Charleston runs up here some times. It is in the government service it is the Planter and it is the handsomest steamer that runs on this river it is one hundred and twenty feet long I should judge and about twenty five feet beam it has three decks and two gang ways on each side of the lower deck it has a high pressure engine and side wheals and to take it all in all it is the prettiest craft that travels these waters and if the ni**ers got what she was worth they can be comfortably without work the rest of there days for she had over fifty thousand dollars worth of freight on board when captured. Private Rufus P. Munyan, Co. D of the 18th Conn. Infantry.

Installed as pilot of the Planter. Awarded prize-booty of $1,500. Meets Lincoln: May and August 1862. Becomes vital asset to Union Navy. Goes on stump-speaking tour in North for abolitionist and Freedmen causes.

In August 1862 two Union generals sent Smalls and missionary Mansfield French to Washington, D.C. to meet with Secretary of War Stanton and President Lincoln. Their request to recruit 5000 black troops was soon granted. Charismatic and articulate, Smalls was sent on a speaking tour of New York to raise support for the Union cause. There Smalls was presented an engraved gold medal by the colored citizens of New York for his heroism, his love of liberty and his patriotism.

J.J. Smith Plantation, Beaufort, SC. USMHI.

Engagement at Secessionville, May 31, 1862

Skirmish at Coosawatchie and Engagements at near Pocotaligo, S.C., October 21, 1862

Occupation of Edisto Island, June Expedition up St. Marys River, January 23 3, 1862 - February 1, 1863 Action on Simmons Bluff, June 23, 1862
The Campaign of the Carolinas December 31, 1864 - March 24, 1865 and April 10 - May 28, 1865

Affair on Skull Creek, S.C., September 24, 1862

Affair at Kirks Bluff, October 18, 1862

Destruction of Locomotives and Rolling Stock Between Sumterville and Camden, S.C. April 1, 1865 Expedition to Camden, S.C., April 5 - 25, 1865

While in Philadelphia Smalls was ejected from a public streetcar by whites. Local Philadelphians were outraged. City streetcars were integrated by 1867. 91 years later Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a city bus.

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

First black Captain of a U.S. vessel, Dec 1863. Impressed Lincoln with his intelligence, and that of the black race. Prominent civil rights leader 150 years ago. Broke the black barrier in Congress. Championed legislation for Parris Island base, SC public schools, equal rights for blacks. Most influential SC politician for 50 years!

Robert Smalls served five terms as a U.S. Congressman during Reconstruction. For nearly 20 years he served as U. S. Collector of Customs in Beaufort, S.C., where he lived as owner in the house in which he had been a slave.
April 1904

2007

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