Robert Smalls: Escaped Slave, Boat Hijacker, US Congressman

Reconstruction, an often forgotten and overlooked period of American history, was a time of radical changes, when black Americans were finally freed from bondage and assumed the rights of full citizenship. It was also the entrance of the first people of color into the US government, with two black senators and sixteen black Congressman serving in federal office.

These achievements were unfortunately rolled back with the introduction of Jim Crow laws. While all the Reconstruction black elected officials are worthy of praise, one of them had a story worthy of a Hollywood action movie, with a daring escape, accomplished war career and ultimate rise to national leadership.

Come learn the fun size story of Robert Smalls, escaped slave, boat hijacker, war hero and US Congressman!

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Sources

Aptheker, Herbert. "The Negro in the Union Navy." The Journal of Negro History 32, no. 2 (1947): 169-200. Accessed January 22, 2021. doi:10.2307/2714852.

Billingsley, Andrew., Billingsley, Professor of Sociology African American Studies and Institute for the Families in Society Andrew. Yearning to Breathe Free: Robert Smalls of South Carolina and His Families. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2007.

Hosmer, John, and Joseph Fineman. "Black Congressmen in Reconstruction Historiography." Phylon (1960-) 39, no. 2 (1978): 97-107. Accessed January 24, 2021. doi:10.2307/274504.

King, Desmond, and Stephen Tuck. "De-Centring the South: America's Nationwide White Supremacist Order after Reconstruction." Past & Present, no. 194 (2007): 213-53. Accessed January 24, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25096664.

Martinek, Jason. "Guest Editor’s Introduction." Transformations: The Journal of Inclusive Scholarship and Pedagogy 27, no. 2 (2017): 116-20. Accessed January 20, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/trajincschped.27.2.0116.

"Robert Smalls." Negro History Bulletin 5, no. 6 (1942): 127. Accessed January 24, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44246288.

Tyler, Jacki Hedlund. "The Unwanted Sailor: Exclusions of Black Sailors in the Pacific Northwest and the Atlantic Southeast." Oregon Historical Quarterly 117, no. 4 (2016): 506-35. Accessed January 20, 2021. doi:10.5403/oregonhistq.117.4.0506.

Weir, William. The Encyclopedia of African American Military History. United States: Prometheus, 2010.

Woodson, C. G. "ROBERT SMALLS AND HIS DESCENDANTS." Negro History Bulletin 11, no. 2 (1947): 27-46. Accessed January 24, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44174742.

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Attributions

License -- https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

TradingCardsNPS -- https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Robert_Smalls_(7222835684).jpg

License -- https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en

Pi3.124 -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Fort_Sumter_National_Monument_marker_of_the_Map_of_Charleston_Harbor_defenses.jpg

Elisa.rolle -- https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Robert_Smalls_House_03.JPG

Clynnwersch -- https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fort_Sumter_3.jpg

Tullio Saba -- https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jim_Crow.jpg