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. “I thought the Planter might be For more than a year after the end of regular pace, and, as Confederate guards of some use to Uncle Abe,” Smalls re- the war, Smalls worked aboard the idly watched, sailed away from Charles- portedly said to the Union tars, and he Planter for the government. In Septem- ton and slavery. formally surrendered the ship. ber 1866, he made his last voyage in his However, Confederate artillery of the News spread quickly of the abduction beloved ship, sailing her to Baltimore, harbor defenses still offered a threat. of the Planter and of the brave slave who where she was decommissioned and Fighting an impulse to hurry the pace, had masterminded the theft. Confederate Smalls was laid off. Smalls gave the traditional whistle salute newspapers bemoaned the incident and as he passed Fort Johnson on James Is- expressed indignation at the negligence WITH ONE WAR OVER, Smalls plunged land. Then he and his crew peered appre- of Relyea and his officers. Northern pa- into another one, a political struggle to hensively as they approached their next pers praised the bold act. Harper’s preserve the freedom he had won aboard obstacle—Fort Sumter, the brick penta- Weekly printed a woodcut of the Planter the Planter. South Carolina’s blacks out- gon looming 40 feet above the water on and proclaimed the theft of the ship “one numbered whites by some 400,000 to a man-made island, famous as the site of the most daring and heroic adventures 275,000, and most of the African-Amer- where the war began. Situated near the since the war commenced.” In his Naval ican population was concentrated in the center of the channel between Morris History of the Civil War, Union Admiral coastal Low Country, where they made and Sullivan’s Islands, Sumter com- David Dixon later wrote, “The taking out up more than 80 percent of the popula-

2 ANNUAL EDITIONS tion. Robert Smalls was their hero, and ber of Confederate veterans—held the that, while a state senator, he had ac- they never tired of hearing his story of majority in the House. Radical Republi- cepted a $5,000 bribe to steer state con- the Planter—and Smalls never tired of can influence was fading, a victim of tracts to Josephus Woodruff, the clerk of telling it. He proved to be an adept poli- corrupt Southern state administrations the senate, who was also president of a tician. He founded his own newspaper to and a decline in support from Northern- printing company. Smalls denied the promote his cause and organized a brass ers. The stage was set for the climax of charge. Democrats hoped to link Smalls band to attract crowds to rallies and Reconstruction—and of Robert Smalls’ to Republican corruption, to deflect atten- torchlight parades. And he literally political career. tion from their own misdeeds, and to de- spoke the language of the black popula- As the election of 1876 approached, fame Smalls and delay him from taking tion—Gullah. He was the “King of whites in South Carolina banded to- his congressional seat while his Demo- Beaufort County,” according to the gether in rifle and saber clubs, ostensible cratic opponent contested the election. Charleston News and Courier. social organizations whose real purpose The principal witness against Smalls Smalls disregarded politics in the im- was the armed intimidation of blacks. By was Woodruff, who had stolen $250,000 mediate postwar period, concentrating in- the summer of 1876, almost 300 such in state funds and fled to Pennsylvania, stead on business ventures and the clubs numbered 14,000 members. Their from where he was extradited and accumulation of large amounts of property. uniform—a red shirt—gave a name to granted immunity in exchange for his Political power was beyond the grasp of their white supremacist movement. testimony against Smalls. Despite a even a famous black war hero. Pardoned Their politics made them diehard sup- weak case built on the testimony of an Confederate military and civil officers porters of the Democrats, who in August unreliable witness, Smalls was convicted gained control of South Carolina’s govern- nominated a slate of state officials com- and sentenced to three years in prison. ment, ratified a constitution, and enacted posed entirely of Confederate veterans, Nevertheless, in a deal worked out be- legislative “Black Codes” denying blacks headed by former general Wade Hamp- tween the state attorney general and the social and political equality. But the Radi- ton for governor. The Republicans—at a U.S. district attorney, the state dismissed cal Republican triumph in the congres- convention chaired by Smalls—coun- the charges against Smalls while the fed- sional elections of 1866 spelled doom for tered with the incumbent Daniel H. eral government dropped charges against repressive white regimes in the former Chamberlain. The carpetbagger Cham- South Carolinians accused of violating Confederate states. The new Congress berlain had been implicated in frauds election laws. Smalls, who was appealing passed Reconstruction acts establishing over the years, but after winning the gov- the case, was unaware that such a deal was military rule in the South and stipulated ernorship as a reform candidate he in the works. In the end, Democratic gov- that no state would be readmitted to the proved to be hard-working and honest. ernor William Simpson granted Smalls a Union until it passed a new state constitu- The campaign was marred by vio- full pardon. tion guaranteeing universal male suffrage lence and threats—perpetrated by both Smalls’ political career never fully re- and ratified the Fourteenth Amendment, sides. Whites terrorized blacks, Smalls covered from the taint of the conviction. which granted black men citizenship and reported, “by riding armed through the He was elected to two more terms in Con- voting rights. Here was an opportunity, and country, by day and night; by firing into gress, but was also twice defeated and Robert Smalls grasped it. the houses of republicans; by breaking failed several times to win renomination. Smalls was elected a delegate to the up republican mass-meetings; …by dis- All the while, the white supremacists in 1868 state constitutional convention, charging employes [sic] who refuse to control of the Democratic Party tightened which drafted a document guaranteeing promise to vote the democratic ticket, their hold on South Carolina. “In South black suffrage. In subsequent elections etc.” Smalls himself had a close call at a Carolina there is neither a free ballot nor the constitution was overwhelmingly en- campaign stop in Edgefield on August an honest count,” Smalls declared in dorsed despite the bitter opposition of re- 12, when a mob of howling Red Shirts 1890, “and since the election in 1874 the actionary whites. Smalls won a seat in the prevented him from speaking and chased history of elections in the State is a history South Carolina House of Representatives him to the safety of his railroad car, of a continued series of murders, outrages, on a Republican ticket that gained huge shouting, “Kill the damn son of a bitch! perjury and fraud.” In 1895 Smalls was majorities in both houses, even with wide- Kill the nigger!” one of only six black delegates to South spread intimidation and violence against Hampton won the governorship in a Carolina’s constitutional convention; 154 black voters. South Carolina ratified the disputed contest, and the Democrats whites attended. In his last important po- Fourteenth Amendment and was readmit- gained control of the state government. litical act, Smalls spoke passionately but ted to the Union on July 9, 1868. Nationally, the compromise that settled in vain against the suffrage provisions of After spending time in the state sen- the disputed Tilden-Hayes presidential the new constitution, which effectively ate, Smalls was elected to the United election ended Reconstruction, and four disenfranchised blacks. “My race needs States House of Representatives in the million African Americans were aban- no special defense,” he declared, “for the 1874 election. His four South Carolina doned to the mercies of white supremacy past history of them in this country proves congressional colleagues were Republi- and Jim Crow. Smalls was reelected to them to be the equal of any people any- cans, but for the first time in 18 years, Congress but was arrested before he left where. All they need is an equal chance in Democrats—among them a large num- for Washington, D.C. The charge was the battle of life.”

3 Article 32. A Bold Break for Freedom

TIME TRAVELER Beaufort, South Carolina Antebellum Beaufort was “the most living memory, and the crop of 1861 architecture. In 1976 the Department of cultured town of its size in America,” was the best in a decade. the Interior proclaimed much of the according to a local historian. It was a Gullah slaves made it all possible. The town a National Historic Preservation time of “fabulous parties, beautiful Gullah (probably a corruption of Angola) District. Robert Smalls’ home at 511 women, ornamented coaches, fine were imported through Charleston in great Prince Street is a painstakingly restored wines and bourbon, hunting, fishing, numbers in the late 1700s. Isolated on re- private residence, but closed to the pub- boat racing, long cigars, duels, discus- mote island plantations, the Gullah re- lic. Smalls was buried at the Tabernacle sions of the cotton market, political tained a rich and cohesive culture despite Baptist Church at 911 Craven Street. A talk, all too often, heated political talk.” 150 years of servitude. bronze bust in the churchyard commem- Until Yankee cannon brought their Given land and freedom by the Union orates his wartime bravery and lifetime world crashing down, Beaufort’s elite victors and educated by Quaker school- of public service. You can contact the fully expected their high life would last marms, the Gullah survived the chaos of Greater Beaufort Chamber of Com- forever. Reconstruction and the whittling away of merce and Beaufort Visitors Center at Beaufort began as a colonial seaport their rights during the Jim Crow era of the P.O. Box 910, 1106 Carteret Street, in 1712 but suffered hard times when 1890s. The white genteel mindset sur- Beaufort, SC 29901, (843) 524-3163. the indigo market collapsed after the vived too. Postwar political transitions The Penn Center on nearby St. Hel- Revolutionary War. Local planters were painful, but there were no race riots ena Island, which helps preserve Gullah sought salvation in the cultivation of in Beaufort, and no Ku Klux Klan. culture, contains a museum, archives, long-fibered sea cotton, a commodity Beaufort’s sudden capture by the and an extensive photo collection. Call coveted by French and English mills. Union fleet in November 1861 assured (803) 838-2432 for more information. In 1860, prices were as high as any in the survival of much of its antebellum —Roger Pinckney

On the convention’s final day each to support the Grand Old Party—“the the only black served. Smalls died on delegate was expected to sign the new party of Lincoln which unshackled the February 23, 1915. For a half-century, he constitution. Smalls refused, and when necks of four millions human beings”— had been the foremost African American delegates then proposed to cut his travel even after it acquiesced in the disenfran- in his native state and a champion of the expenses, he said he would rather walk chisement and segregation of southern political, social, and economic improve- home than endorse the document. blacks. After his removal as customs col- ment of black South Carolinians. The 51-year-old war hero was ap- lector following the 1912 election of pointed collector of customs at Beaufort Democrat Woodrow Wilson, Smalls by President Benjamin Harrison in 1890 spent much of his time in a rocking chair Mark H. Dunkelman is the author of Get- and was repeatedly reappointed by suc- on his front porch, suffering from ill tysburg’s Unknown Soldier: The Life, ceeding Republican presidents. His polit- health. Part of his routine was lunch at a Death, and Celebrity of Amos Humiston ical power had waned, but he continued neighborhood drugstore, where he was (Praeger, 1999).