Celebrating Robert Smalls
It was 1862. Robert Smalls was 23 years old. Enslaved in Charleston, South Carolina, he worked for the Confederacy as a sailor. His job was to pilot a transport steamer called the Planter through the harbor.
On the night of May 13th, the Planter was loaded with weapons for Confederate forts. Before dawn, while the white officers were off the ship, Smalls and the rest of the enslaved Black crew took control of the vessel. They first stopped to pick up Smalls’ wife, his children, and others who had been waiting nearby.
Smalls put on the captain’s broad-brimmed straw hat and stood in the pilot house the way the captain normally did. As the ship passed each Confederate fort, Smalls gave the correct whistle signals. One by one, the forts allowed the Planter to pass through Charleston Harbor.
When the ship finally approached the Union blockade, Union soldiers prepared to fire. Smalls quickly raised a white flag. The Planter surrendered, and Smalls, his family, and the rest of the crew crossed into freedom. Newspapers across the North reported the story, and Robert Smalls became widely known for the daring escape.
Two months later, the Planter was caught in crossfire between Confederate batteries and Union forces. The white captain ordered the ship run aground and then went below deck to hide. Smalls refused. He took control of the vessel and navigated it out of danger. When they reached safety, Union officers removed the captain for cowardice.
Robert Smalls was later given command of the Planter, becoming one of the first Black men to captain a ship in the United States Navy during the Civil War.
After the war, Smalls returned to South Carolina, where he entered public life, serving in the state legislature and later in the U.S. Congress. His life traced a remarkable path—from slavery, to freedom, to national leadership—during one of the most turbulent periods in American history.
Join us this month, on-air and online, during Black History Month on BRIGHT-FM as we journey through history.
