Robert Smalls

In the spring of 1862, 23-year-old Robert Smalls was working as a pilot in Charleston harbor aboard a Confederate steamer called “the Planter.” The ship’s three officers were white. The other seven crewmen, including Smalls, were slaves.

Despite Confederate orders requiring officers to always remain aboard their vessels, the officers on the Planter often went ashore at night to spend the night with their families, leaving only the enslaved crew on the ship. Whether they did so because they trusted Smalls, or doubted his courage and ability, either way they made a big mistake. Smalls recognized the opportunity their negligence presented, and he resolved to act on it.

First he had to convince the other crew members. Escaping out of the heavily guarded harbor would be risky and dangerous. But Smalls’ charisma, confidence, and the prospect of liberty overcame whatever fears or doubts they may have had. Smalls set his plan in motion.

Next he had to convince his wife Hannah. What will happen if we are caught? she asked him. “I shall be shot,” Smalls replied, adding that Hannah and the children would possibly be punished and separated. Without hesitation Hannah answered, “I will go. For where you die, I will die.”

In the predawn hours of May 13, Smalls hoisted the Confederate and South Carolina flags and the Planter got underway, with Smalls standing on the deck, impersonating the captain by wearing his hat. He steamed the vessel past sentries who had no reason to doubt the ship was acting under orders. Had the ruse been detected, the steamer would have been easily blown out of the water.

Smalls guided the ship to a wharf where Hannah was hiding and waiting, along with their four-year-old daughter and infant son, together with six other enslaved family members of the crew. Once the women and children were on board and safely below deck, Smalls turned the ship toward the mouth of the harbor, which was guarded by Fort Sumter.

As the Planter approached the fort, Smalls pulled the chord on the ship’s whistle, giving two long blows followed by a short one—the signal to pass. While everyone else was below deck on their knees praying, Smalls boldly steered the ship past the fort’s guns. “Blow the damned Yankees to hell!” a Confederate sentry shouted as he steamed by.

Once past the fort, Smalls turned his ship toward the Onward, the closest of the Federal blockade ships. As they drew near, the crew ran down the rebel flags and hoisted a white bedsheet. Suspicious, an officer aboard the Onward shouted out, “Stop, or I will blow you out of the water!” Smalls slowly drew alongside the federal ship and yelled out to it, “Good morning, sir! I have brought you some of the old United States guns taken from Fort Sumter!”

The daring escape made Smalls an instant hero in the North. He went on to serve in the United States Navy, bought his old master’s home at a tax sale after the war, served in the South Carolina legislature, and was elected to one term in the U.S. House of Representatives. He died in South Carolina in February 1915, at age 75.

Robert Smalls and his crew commandeered the Confederate steamship Planter and delivered it to the U.S. Navy on May 13, 1862.