South Carolina – African-Americans – Captain Robert Smalls

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Also see: More SC Notable African-Americans

Robert Smalls Biography

• Major accomplishments - overview of Smalls' life, inluding the highlights of his career
  

• Robert Smalls Home Page - SCIway K-12 Web Design Contest Winner - Blacksburg Middle School, Cherokee County
  

• Pictures of Smalls and his ship the Planter - US Navy

Robert Smalls Aboard the Planter

• Escape! - May 12, 1862 - how the Beaufort slave hijacked a Confederate steamship, disguised himself as a white captain, and sailed to Union safety
  – More details - a longer account of the slave crew's escape ... full of historical facts
  

• Don't give up! - November, 1863 - how Smalls, now a pilot for the US Navy, urged his shipmates to continue fighting even as their captain prepared to surrender ... they won the battle, the old captain was dismissed, and Smalls took over as leader
  

• The adventures continue - read about the rest of Smalls' life, including how he became a celebrity and a politician, was sentenced to jail for accepting a bribe, received a pardon, and went back to Beaufort to retire in his old master's house
  

More about Robert Smalls

• Election Methods in the South - an article written by Smalls explaining why elections in South Carolina after 1874 were a "series of murders, outrages, perjury and fraud"
  

Related Resources on Robert Smalls

• Robert Smalls Legacy Foundation