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Welcome. I am the author of Universal Time, a sci-fi urban comedy;
Beaufort 1849, an historical novel set in antebellum South Carolina;
and In the Land of Porcelain, an urban comedy set in present-day San Francisco.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

The Improbable Story of Robert Smalls, Beaufort Hero


This is a piece of history I wish I could’ve incorporated into Beaufort 1849 but the timing just wouldn’t work.

Robert Smalls began his life in 1839 in a slave cabin in Beaufort. In his teens he was sent to Charleston and hired out to work for wages that his owner would collect, a not uncommon practice. He worked in a hotel, as a lamplighter and then on the wharves and docks of Charleston. He married, had children, and eventually worked his way up to a wheelman, learning to pilot the Charleston harbor.  Though undeniably constrained by the realties of slavery, his life had much more scope for initiative and resourcefulness than the average slave.

Now comes the exciting part. During the Civil War, Smalls was assigned as wheelman on the steamer, Planter, an armed dispatch and transport boat used by the Confederacy. On the night of May 13, 1862, the white crew decided to spend the night on shore, probably to amuse themselves with the distractions Charleston had to offer. Robert Smalls and the seven other slave crewmen took the opportunity to strike. With a Confederate flag flying and Smalls dressed in a captain’s uniform, at 3 a.m. Smalls backed the boat out of her slip and made way to a nearby wharf where the families of Smalls and other crew members were hiding in wait.  After loading the contraband passengers, Smalls brazenly chugged the boat past the five Confederate forts guarding the harbor. Then, taking down the Confederate flag and hoisting a white sheet in its stead, he made a beeline for the blockading Federal fleet just beyond. Luckily the first US Navy ship he encountered noticed the sheet moments before it was set to open fire on the renegade vessel.

Smalls turned Planter over to the U.S. Navy, along with its cargo of artillery and explosives. Even more valuable, he handed over a codebook that revealed Confederacy secret signals and placement of mines and torpedoes around Charleston harbor. In addition, due to his comprehensive familiarity with the area, Smalls was able to offer extensive information about the harbor’s defenses.

The North was delighted! Smalls was an overnight hero and media sensation in Northern papers. Congress passed a bill awarding Smalls and the other seven crewmen $1500 in prize money for the captured vessel. Two weeks after the daring escape Smalls even met Abraham Lincoln himself, who was impressed by Smalls’s account of his exploits. Smalls’s deeds became a major argument for allowing African Americans to serve in the Union Army, and Smalls himself served as a pilot for the Union forces. In 1863 Smalls became the first black Captain of a vessel in the service of the United States.

This is just the beginning of Smalls’s accomplishments, but the rest will have to wait for another blog post. I’ll just observe that as much as Smalls was lauded by the North, he was in equal parts reviled by the South. In a war, one side’s hero is almost necessarily the other side’s varlet.

6 comments:

  1. Great story! and great history! These are the lessor known events and people who bring American history alive. Thank you for sharing this. Looking forward for more. Will also check Beaufort 1849
    dk

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  2. In a war, one side’s hero is almost necessarily the other side’s varlet.

    Quite true. I see proof of that all the time while researching my series, set in the Southern theater of the Revolutionary War. Smalls' story doesn't appear in history books for the same reasons that the efficient, thorough occupation of Wilmington, NC by Crown forces for most of 1781 doesn't appear in history books. :-)

    Suzanne Adair

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  3. Thanks for your comments dk and Suzanne. Robert Smalls' life has such great natural drama I don't know why someone hasn't made a biopic on him.

    As to what does and doesn't make it into the history books,I think we Americans tend to towards amnesia about vast swaths of our history in general. I bet if you asked most Americans when was Washington D.C. invaded by a foreign army and the White House burnt to the ground, they would look at you as if you'd sprouted an extra head.

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  4. His later life plays a role in my upcoming novel "Yankee Reconstructed." (Release: Jan., 2016)

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  5. Great story! I've heard it before, but I'd forgotten it. Thanks for the reminder! I'll have to check out your book!
    (P.S. I have no idea why my identity is showing up as "anonymous" -- I logged in with WordPress. Hmmm...

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  6. Oh wow! Great story! I never heard this before, even though I did extensive research for my novel. Thanks for this!

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