Robert Smalls

Civil War hero, sailor, and US representative, born in Beaufort, South Carolina, USA. His mother was an African-American slave, but as he grew up learning the trade of sailmaker and rigger, he became a familiar figure on the Charleston waterfront. Having gained considerable skill at piloting boats along the South Carolina and Georgia coasts, he was forced by the Confederates to pilot the Planter, a transport boat that had a crew of African-Americans with a few white officers. On 13 May 1862, with the white officers ashore, he persuaded its African-American crew to sail the ship out of Charleston harbor and then turned it over to the Union navy; its cargo was estimated to be worth several million dollars. Immediately celebrated as a hero in the North, he was hired by the Union army as a pilot and participated in several engagements. In October 1862 he went to New York City to try to get support for a colony of freed slaves at Port Royal, SC. He spent nine months in Philadelphia to get a basic education, and in June 1864 he attended the Republican Party Convention as part of a delegation of free blacks. After the war he served in the South Carolina legislature and then in the US House of Representatives (Republican, South Carolina, 1875–9, 1882–7). Struggling constantly against obstacles placed in his way by colleagues, he worked to gain some measures of equity for African-Americans. He was also an officer in the South Carolina militia, rising to the rank of major-general. He ended his career as the Federal collector of the port in his native town of Beaufort, SC (1889–1913).

Robert Smalls
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from South Carolina's 5th and 7th district
Term of office: March 1875 - March 1879, July 1882 - March 1883, and March 1884 - March 1887
Political party:	Republican
Preceded by:	Richard H. Cain
Succeeded by:	William Elliott
Born:	April 5, 1839 Beaufort, South Carolina
Died:	February 23, 1915 Beaufort, South Carolina

Robert Smalls (April 5, 1839 - February 23, 1915) was an African American slave who became a naval hero at the same time he freed himself and his family in May 1862 from slavery. With his wife and children, and a small group of other African Americans hoping to escape slavery, Smalls made a daring escape aboard the Planter out of Charleston harbor.

Smalls turned the Planter over to the United States Navy, along with its onboard stash of weapons and explosives.

In December 1863, after an act of bravery under fire, Smalls became the first black captain of a vessel in the service of the United States.

In 1866 Smalls went into business in Beaufort with Richard Howell Gleaves, opening a store for freedmen (freed slaves).

During Reconstruction, Smalls served in the South Carolina House of Representatives (1865-1870) and in the South Carolina Senate (1871-1874).

In 1877, after the Compromise of 1877, and as a part of wide ranging white efforts to mute African American political power and rights, Smalls was illegitimately charged and convicted of taking a bribe five years earlier, in 1872, in connection with the awarding of a printing contract.