Jonathan P. Baird

Last fall, when I was traveling in South Carolina, my friend Robin, who is a civil rights attorney, told me about Robert Smalls and showed me a plaque in his honor in Charleston. I have to admit I had barely heard of him. In all my years of education and in my own independent reading, his name was never mentioned.

Smalls grew up in Beaufort, South Carolina. He was born a slave in 1839. His situation was unusual. His owners, the McKee family, made him what was called a ‘quasi-slave’. He was raised as if he was a rich white boy even though he could be beaten or sold off at any time. The McKee family treated Robert almost like a son.

As a young man, Robert asked to buy his freedom but the McKees did not respond well. They tried to break Robert’s spirit by exposing him to slavery’s dark side but that backfired. Robert’s mother and Henry McKee, the son of the patriarch, decided on a different plan to address Robert’s rebellious tendencies. McKee rented him out for work in Charleston, a plan that profited McKee who kept nine-tenths of the money earned.

That led to Robert working a variety of jobs as a laborer. One job was as a dockworker and then a sailor for the Confederate Navy. The Civil War was already underway. Robert was hired for the lowest position on a ship as a deckhand but he was a quick study and soon rose to become one of the top ranked black sailors on his ship, the C.S.S. Planter. He got trained as a helmsman.

In that role, he became an expert on the ins and outs of Charleston harbor. The Captain of the Planter taught Robert everything he needed to know about running a boat. Robert also knew the location of all the mines placed in the harbor that were meant to blow up Union ships as he was one of those responsible for placing the mines.

Charleston had played a critical role as the most active North American port in the slave trade. Nearly half the captives forced from Africa to the mainland United States arrived through Charleston. By 1860, an estimated 4 million people were being held in bondage.

During those years around the start of the Civil War, Smalls got married and he went to his wife’s owner to see if he could purchase her freedom. The price was $800, which was an almost impossible sum for someone in Smalls’ position. The financial impossibility of buying his wife’s freedom (along with the possibility that his wife could conceivably be sold along with his two small children) led Smalls to think more seriously about escape.

Smalls hatched a plan. Over a period of months he waited for the right time. He needed the Captain and the other white members of the crew to be off the ship (which was not supposed to happen). The opportunity arose on May 13, 1862. Smalls and a small crew of black sailors slipped their cotton steamer off the dock in the middle of the night. They picked up family members at a rendez-vous spot and then they carefully navigated through Charleston harbor.

Smalls even got the Captain’s broad-rimmed hat to wear which would be recognized by those defending the harbor. He counted on the dark to aid his ruse. If the Confederates realized it was a ship commandeered by slaves, all on board would have very likely been tortured and executed. It was no easy feat to get through the heavily fortified harbor. Smalls had to ring a secret bell code and navigate through five check points. The Union Navy had blockaded Confederate ports including Charleston and Smalls hoped to reach the Union ships that were outside the harbor.

When the Union officers saw the Planter, they almost fired on it. If hit, the ship would have been a powder keg since it was heavily armed. There was 200 rounds of ammunition, four cannons, a 32 pound pivot gun, a 24-pound howitzer and 4 other guns on board. However, Smalls displayed a white flag and that saved the day. The Confederates realized what was happening too late. They fired on the Planter but the ship was out of range. Smalls’ escape meant an unexpected weapons bonanza for the Union. It was the largest seizure of weapons in the entire war.

The news of the escape to freedom went viral nationally. Smalls became an instant hero. The U.S. Congress passed a private bill authorizing the Navy to appraise the value of the Planter and they awarded Smalls and his crew a monetary award. Smalls received $1500, a significant sum in those days. It was enough to allow him to purchase his former owner’s house after the war. The Confederacy was so freaked out by Smalls’ audacity, they put a $4000 bounty on his head.

President Lincoln was extremely impressed by Smalls’ actions. He invited him to meet at the White House. Smalls had been lobbying Edwin Stanton, the Secretary of War, to begin enlisting Black soldiers. Lincoln subsequently made that hugely consequential decision which dramatically advanced the Union’s cause. It is likely that Smalls’ exemplary action persuaded Lincoln to make that decision.

It is hard to overstate the importance of the introduction of Black troops to the Union side. The effect was tide-changing. Nearly 200,000 Black men, many previously enslaved, served in the Union Army and Navy. The new troop addition gave the Union a crucial manpower advantage while depleting the Confederate labor force. It also transformed the entire goal of the civil war. The war became not just about preserving the Union. It became a war of liberation from slavery. The introduction of Black troops was a devastating psychological blow to the already battered Confederacy.

Smalls fought on the Union side in 17 military actions and became the first African American Captain in the United States Navy. He personally shattered any notion of Black inferiority and inspired millions. He had immense popularity after the war and he served in the South Carolina assembly and then served five terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. He was a founding member of the South Carolina Republican Party. In 1895 he fought tooth and nail against Jim Crow in the South Carolina Constitutional Convention that stripped Black people of their voting rights again.

In Smalls’ lifetime, Black people had already been excluded from democracy for 200 years. He said:

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

Smalls’ story has never reached a large mass audience even though his actions sent a huge shock wave across the country during the Civil War. He may be the least well-known individual whose actions had the most consequential effect on the entire Civil War.