Biographical
Sidebar:
Robert Smalls
Among the
most celebrated black heroes of the Civil War, Robert Smalls (1839-1915)
had a political career that stretched into the twentieth century.
Born a slave
in Beaufort, South Carolina, Smalls worked on the Charleston docks before
the Civil War.
Employed
by the Confederacy as a pilot on the Planter, Smalls and and seven other
black sailors secretly guided the ship out of Charleston harbor in May
1862 and delivered it to federal forces. In the process, Smalls succeeded
in helping eight other men, five women, and three children to escape from
slavery. The Confederacy offered a $4,000 reward for his capture.
He was given
a reward of $1,500 and made a second lieutenant in the Union navy. Smalls
later earned the rank of captain during the Civil War.
In 1864,
Smalls was evicted from a segregated Philadelphia streetcar; a mass protest
followed that led to the integration of the city's public transportation.
During Reconstruction,
Smalls became a powerful political leader on the South Carolina Sea Islands.
He represented Beaufort in the constitutional convention of 1868, published
a local newspaper, and was elected to five terms in Congress.
In 1895,
he was one of six black delegates to the state constitutional convention,
where he protested against the decision to deprive blacks of the right
to vote.
Until 1913,
he held office as collector of customs at Beaufort.
In a 1913
letter to Booker T. Washington, Smalls wrote:
"During
the twenty odd years I have held the position of Collector, I have succeeded
to so manage affairs that when I leave it, I will do so with credit
to myself, my family, and my race . . . When we go out of office we
go clean. So when the excellent history of the Tuskegee and the Negro
shall be written, the Customs House at Beaufort, while conducted by
colored men, can be easily attached to the top or bottom, for whatever
inspiration it may be to the Race."
Learn
more about Robert Smalls
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