Robert Smalls was born on April 5, 1839.
Smalls was born a slave in 1839. His master hired him out as a deckhand on local ships and he eventually rose to pilot of a cotton transport called the Planter, based in Charleston harbor. When the Civil War broke out, the ship was taken into the Confederate navy where it was used for a variety of jobs, including transporting arms. These jobs ended when Charleston was blockaded. Smalls was well-liked by the white officers and one night they went ashore and left him in charge of the black crew. They had planned an escape and this was the moment. Smalls brought his family aboard and the ship set sail. It had to pass a few checkpoints, but Smalls knew the passwords and put on the captains straw hat to conceal his identity. They passed by Fort Sumter and exited the harbor to surrender to the Union fleet. He became a celebrity in the North and the South put a $4,000 bounty on his head. The Union rewarded him with $1,500 (which he later used to purchase the house he was born in). He stayed on the Planter as its pilot and eventually rose to captain. Later, he commanded the ironclad Keokuk. He participated in numerous naval activities. He became a proponent of enlistment of black soldiers and recruited 5,000 himself after Lincoln agreed with his and others’ pleas. After the war, he went into politics in South Carolina and was elected to five nonconsecutive terms in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1874-1886.
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