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A Bold Break for Freedom Robert Smalls Made a Daring Escape from Slavery During the Civil War

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A Bold Break for Freedom Robert Smalls Made a Daring Escape from Slavery During the Civil War Article 32 A Bold Break for Freedom Robert Smalls Made a Daring Escape from Slavery During the Civil War. His Real Battle, However, Came When He Tried to Preserve the Freedom He Had Won. by Mark H. Dunkelman The plot to steal the Confederate men. He had been sailing aboard the spent her childhood as a field hand on the steamship Planter started with a joke. Planter since before the Civil War be- McKee’s rice plantation, and she made One spring day in 1862, Captain C.J. gan. Built in Charleston in 1860, the 300- Robert aware of his advantages—and Relyea and the ship’s other officers went ton, two-engine sidewheeler was about that his situation could change instantly. ashore at their home port of Charleston, 150 feet long and could carry 1,400 bales She forced him to watch slaves being South Carolina, leaving the Planter in of cotton or 1,000 troops. She was armed whipped and sold at auction, told him the hands of her African-American crew- with a 32-pound pivot gun on her fore- stories of their sufferings, and made him men. With the white men gone, 23-year- deck and a 24-pound howitzer on her af- identify with less-fortunate blacks. terdeck. Guided by Smalls, the Planter old wheelman Robert Smalls amused his When McKee died in 1848, his son had navigated the harbor, rivers, and fellow slaves by trying on Relyea’s dis- Henry inherited Lydia and Robert. In coast, making surveys, laying torpedoes, tinctive broad-brimmed straw hat. The 1851, Henry hired Robert out in Charles- and delivering men and matériel to forti- crew kidded Smalls about his resem- ton, and the 12-year-old moved to the fications. Smalls knew the signals Rel- blance to Relyea—both men were short city, where he waited tables and worked yea used to pass Confederate military and stocky—and suggested that from a as a lamplighter. The boy, however, was installations, and the location of deadly distance it would be impossible to distin- drawn to the bustling waterfront, where underwater mines. He needed no super- guish between the black slave and the he found work as a stevedore, a teamster, vision from a white man to sail the white captain. Smalls cut short the ensu- and a sailmaker and rigger. During the Planter safely. ing laughter with a warning not to repeat summers Smalls sailed aboard a coastal the joke. He had an idea. schooner, developing skills as a boat ROBERT SMALLS WAS BORN on April 5, Later, at a secret meeting in Smalls’ handler and navigator. He took control of 1839, in the slave quarters of the home of tiny East Bay Street room, he revealed his financial affairs by arranging to hire his master, John McKee, on Prince Street his plan. On a night when the Planter’s himself out and pay Henry McKee $15 in Beaufort, South Carolina. Smalls’ de- officers were ashore, the crew would per month. After his 1856 marriage to scendants have claimed that McKee was take the ship from her mooring, pick up Hannah Jones, a hotel maid 14 years his Robert’s father, but even white paternity family members hidden aboard another senior, Smalls bought her time from her would have made no difference for the vessel nearby, and sail to the safety of the master for $7 a month. When the couple newborn boy. Roberts mother, Lydia, Union blockading fleet outside the har- had daughter Elizabeth, he arranged to was McKee’s slave, and so her son was bor. Smalls would disguise himself as purchase Hannah and the baby for $800. also a slave. the captain and duplicate Relyea’s usual He was still saving toward that end when routine so as not to arouse suspicion By slavery’s standards, though, Rob- he hatched his plan to escape with his when the Planter steamed past the ert led a pampered life. Lydia was one of family from slavery aboard the Planter. watchful sentries at Charleston’s Con- McKees “Swonga people,” as house ser- federate forts and batteries. vants were called in the Gullah dialect ON AN APRIL SUNDAY Smalls reassem- Smalls was up to the perilous task. Al- spoken by the local black population. bled the plotters at another clandestine though he was referred to as the Robert consequently grew up in the Mc- meeting in his room to detail his plan. Planter’s wheelman, Smalls was in fact Kee household instead of toiling in the Then they waited for the right circum- the ship’s pilot in all but name—the title master’s rice fields, and he enjoyed con- stances to spring the plot. The opportu- being reserved exclusively for white siderable independence. His mother had nity finally arrived on the evening of 1 Article 32. A Bold Break for Freedom May 12, 1862, when Captain Relyea or- manded all entrances and exits from of the ‘Planter’ would have done credit dered Smalls to ready the Planter for an Charleston Harbor. to anyone, but the cleverness with which early morning departure to deliver guns As the Planter labored against the in- the whole affair was conducted deserves and ammunition to a battery. Smalls ac- coming tide and daybreak began lighting more than a passing notice.” knowledged the order and betrayed no the eastern horizon, some of the crew The black hero was sent to Washing- excitement when Relyea and his white pleaded with their leader to alter course ton for audiences with President Abra- mate and chief engineer went ashore to and make a run for it. Smalls refused and ham Lincoln and Secretary of War spend the night—in violation of standing reportedly prayed to God to deliver the Edwin M. Stanton. Asked by the presi- orders—leaving Smalls and eight black ship as He had delivered the Israelites dent why he had stolen the ship, Smalls crewmen aboard the ship. from the Egyptians. Then, as the Planter gave a succinct answer: “Freedom.” With the whites gone, Smalls notified passed beneath Sumter’s walls, Smalls With the shackles of bondage broken, his shipmates that the time had come. stood in the shadows of the pilothouse, Smalls grasped opportunity after oppor- Presumably, one of the men assembled his face shielded by Captain Relyea’s tunity as they arose. When President Lin- the women and children at their hiding hat, and gave two long and one short coln signed a bill awarding the Planter’s place, a merchant ship berthed in the yanks on the whistle cord and waved to black crew a monetary reward for their Cooper River. Meanwhile, Smalls and the sentinel atop the ramparts. A sus- deed, Smalls, as the leader, received the his crew waited and listened as a crier pense-laden moment passed before the largest amount, $1,500. At a tax auction ashore called out the passing hours. At guard shouted, “Pass the Planter!” Com- in Beaufort in 1863, the former slave about 3:00 A.M. on May 13, Smalls pletely fooled by Smalls’ masquerade, used part of the payment to purchase his donned the absent captain’s coat and the Confederate added, “Blow the birthplace, the Prince Street property of straw hat and ordered the crew to fire the damned Yankees to hell, or bring one of his former master. For the rest of the war, boilers. Crewmembers hoisted the Con- them in!” “Aye, aye,” Smalls called Smalls piloted vessels for the Union federate and South Carolina flags, cast back, and he put his ship to sea. forces. He was aboard the ironclad Ke- off the hawsers mooring the ship to the Now a new danger loomed. Ahead lay okuk during the naval attack on Charles- wharf, sounded the required departure the Union fleet, and the Yankee sailors ton on April 7, 1863, when the ship was signal, and slowly backed the Planter naturally thought that the Confederate hit 90 times. Smalls steered the crippled away from the dock. A Confederate sen- steamer approaching at full throttle was vessel out of range of the Confederate try, barely 50 yards away, paid the either attacking or attempting to run the guns to a position off Morris Island, Planter no heed. blockade. Aboard the USS Onward, where she finally sank. Lieutenant J.F. Nickels hurriedly or- Most often, he piloted his old ship. On Imitating Relyea’s gait and posture, dered his men to their duty stations and Smalls ordered his crew to proceed to the December 1, 1863, the Planter was car- prepared to fire a broadside at the inter- rying rations to Union forces when she North Atlantic Wharf in the Cooper loper headed in his direction. Aboard the River, where he made a brief stop to pick came under crossfire from Union and Planter, Smalls ordered a white bedsheet Confederate artillery. The white captain up his passengers—five women and run up the foremast. The Union lookouts three children. Among them were panicked, ordered the ship beached and saw the surrender signal, and Nickels al- rushed below to hide. Smalls refused to Smalls’ wife and his children, four-year- lowed the Planter to come alongside. old Elizabeth and newborn Robert, Jr. obey the order and guided the Planter to Quickly boarding her, the lieutenant and safety. The cowardly captain was dis- With everyone safely aboard, Smalls his men were astonished to discover blew the steam whistle, eased into the in- missed from the service; Smalls was ap- Smalls and his all-black crew and pas- pointed in his place. ner channel, patiently kept the ship at her sengers.
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