Few men embody the crucible of Civil War history like Robert Smalls.
Born a slave but fathered by a white man, Smalls commandeered a ship that he sailed to freedom from the heart of the Confederacy.
Today, his descendants work to keep the memory of this remarkable Civil War hero alive.
This is his amazing story.
Growing Up Smalls
Smalls was born in 1839 in Beaufort, South Carolina. His mother was a slave, taken at age nine from her family in the Sea Islands of Georgia. Smalls’ father was white, but it’s unclear if his father was Smalls’ master, his master’s son, or his master’s plantation manager. When the Civil War broke out with shelling of Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, Smalls was sailing those waters as a harbor pilot.
By the evening of May 12, 1862, the Union had responded with an armed blockade of Charleston Harbor. That night, the white captain and two white mates of the CSS Planter went ashore, leaving the heavily armed supply ship in the care of Smalls and seven other enslaved crew members. But they underestimated Smalls’ desire to escape from both the Confederacy’s Planter and its planters.
Running for It
Relying on his resemblance to the Planter’s captain and his knowledge of the harbor the signals the ship need to flash as they passed by Confederate forts, Smalls sailed to a dock to pick up his wife, their two children, and 11 other slaves. Then he headed for the Union blockade.
Had he set sail any earlier, his story might have ended there: As a Union ship leveled its cannons at the Planter, the dawn’s light illuminated the white flag that Smalls had raised. Rather than sink the Confederate ship, the Union vessel accepted its surrender.
The North immediately hailed Smalls as a hero. Congress paid the Planter’s crew of slaves half the value of the captured ship. Smalls personally received $1,500 — enough to buy his former owner’s home in Beaufort after the war ended. The story made newspapers in the U.S. — at least in the North — and even got a mention in the Times of London.
Serving the Union
Smalls’ valor did not end that night in Charleston Harbor. He personally lobbied the Secretary of War to allow African Americans to enlist. After President Lincoln approved, Smalls recruited 5,000 soldiers. He also returned to the Planter, now a Union ship, and engaged in some 17 military actions. He was eventually promoted to captain and became one of the highest paid black soldiers of the war. Smalls was on board the Planter at the end of the war in April 1865 — sailing in Charleston Harbor.
During the post-war period known as Reconstruction, when federal troops and Lincoln’s Republican Party largely controlled politics in the South, Smalls established schools for African Americans in South Carolina and then joined the ranks of blacks elected to Congress and other political offices. Between 1874 and 1887, Smalls served five terms in Congress. Among other legislation, Smalls drafted the law that established the Parris Island Marine base near his home in South Carolina.
Toward the end of Small’s political career, however, federal support for Reconstruction ended, and African Americans began losing their short-lived political equality. In 1895 South Carolina amended its constitution to effectively prohibit African Americans from voting. Smalls, however, managed to stay near the water, serving as the Federal Collector of Customs for the Port of Beaufort until 1911. He died in 1915, in the house behind which he had been born a slave.
Leaving a Legacy
Today, Smalls’ descendants work to preserve his memory and to honor his bravery and service. Smalls’ great-granddaughter Helen Boulware-Moore has established a traveling historical exhibit consisting of artifacts from Smalls’ life. She says it’s a blessing to know she’s descended from Smalls. “[It’s] absolutely an inspiration! If you look at the descendants you can see it because of what we have done educationally. Many of us are involved with education ourselves — gotten doctorate degrees, been physicians and ministers. I don’t feel that it’s pressure, it’s what expected … When you know who you are, and what your history has been, then you have a sense of what is expected of you.”
If you, like Robert Smalls’ great-granddaughter, believe that learning about your family’s Civil War past can help guide your own future, turn to Ancestry. The collection of Civil War documents available on Ancestry contains the names of millions soldiers, including 178,000 African American soldiers, and 6,000 photographs from the period. Ancestry also has a wealth of resources to facilitate African American genealogical research.
Find out about the heroes in your family using those and other resources on Ancestry.
— Sandie Angulo Chen