Robert Smalls is one of this country’s greatest heroes, yet most people have not heard of him. Living in relative anonymity compared to black history icons such as Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass, Smalls’s contribution to American history should not go unnoticed. Born into slavery, Smalls became a soldier during the Civil War, a politician after the conflict, and an entrepreneur whose legacy influenced the country.
“His whole story is just kind of fascinating,” Wilfred Reilly, a Kentucky State University professor of political science, previously told me about Smalls. “He was this sort of warrior, forced to be a pilot on this Confederate fighting boat. He stole the boat and took it to a Union port. Joined the other side of the military [and] did well in the war. Met the president [and] integrated the military. Went home, made some money, started the local Republican Party, and started the local school system.”
Robert Smalls was born in 1839 on a plantation in Beaufort, South Carolina. As a slave, Smalls worked many jobs, including as a rigger, a sailmaker, and a longshoreman. He married when he was 17 and had his first child two years later. When the Civil War began, he was forced to fight for the Confederacy — however, secretly, Smalls had other ideas.
Initially, he was a pilot on the Confederate transport ship CSS Planter. Smalls would eventually lead a mutiny against the vessel’s commanding officer and take control of the boat. Now under his command, Smalls guided the CSS Planter to a Union-controlled seaport and gave it to the Union Navy. The Union then used it in naval battles against the Confederacy.
It was a brave and heroic act, indicative of Smalls’s courageous character. For this valiant effort, Smalls met with President Abraham Lincoln. It was a meeting that would change the course of the war — and America’s history. It is cited as one reason Lincoln allowed black soldiers to fight for the Union in the war.
“The example of what he did and his personal conversations with Lincoln were one of the things that inspired President Lincoln to specifically let black troops into the Army and the Navy,” Reilly told me.
Moreover, frequently overlooked in accounts of Smalls’s life was his staunch support for the Republican Party. In personal statements and letters, Smalls credited the GOP with transforming his life and putting him on a course that allowed his success. He also credited the Republican Party for being liberators and ending slavery.
“I never lose sight of the fact that, had it not been for the Republican Party, I never would have been an office-holder of any kind — from 1862 to the present,” Smalls wrote in 1912 to Sen. Knute Nelson of Minnesota. In this letter, Smalls famously declared that the Republican Party was “the party which unshackled the necks of four million human beings.”
Smalls was a hero during the war and became a legend for his efforts. However, what he did after the war should be considered just as heroic, if not more so, even if it didn’t require physical strength or force to help overthrow a military vessel and, subsequently, a rogue government. He would later become a successful entrepreneur and business owner.
“He formed business partners with both black and white people,” Reilly said. “He was elected to office, and he helped get the legislation signed that began the South Carolina public schools. He also started the South Carolina Republican Party.”
Smalls was a political leader at both the state and federal levels. First, he was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives in 1868. Two years later, Smalls was elected to the South Carolina Senate. In 1882, he was elected to Congress, representing South Carolina’s 5th and then 7th Congressional Districts. He remained in Congress until 1889. In 1890, President Benjamin Harrison appointed Smalls as the Port of Beaufort collector.
Moreover, Smalls was also an integral part of integrating public transportation systems. Before his political career, in 1867, while visiting Philadelphia, Smalls was asked to give up his seat to a white passenger. He would lead a boycott against Philadelphia transportation systems as a result. In addition to his other accomplishments, Smalls was the original activist against racial discrimination in public transportation systems.
Smalls was also the founder of the South Carolina Republican Party and the state’s first school for black students. He also co-founded the Enterprise Railroad and established a local newspaper, the Beaufort Southern Standard.
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“And the final aspect of this whole remarkable story is that later in life, he ended up buying the plantation house that his former master had owned,” Reilly said. “After he bought it, his former slavemaster’s wife of the former plantation owner was worried about being kicked out of the plantation and penniless. So Smalls, in what he described as a ‘radical act of mercy,’ let her live there. She remained there until she died. But Smalls owned the mansion that he once did chores in as a peasant.”
Robert Smalls is a cultural icon and black history hero. His legacy warrants accolades and recognition. It should not fade into a cultural oblivion of historical anonymity. He died in 1915 and left behind a legacy that helped shape the nation’s history and culture.