The story of Rober Smalls stopped me in my tracks. I never heard his name before this month.
His is a story of bravery, courage, defiance, and determination.
I admire what he did with his life, and I’m convinced that I can push myself to do more.
Robert Smalls was a slave in America, and he dared to dream big. His mother was enslaved, and his father was an unknown white man. In 1851, Smalls was taken by his master to Charleston, South Carolina, where he was hired out to work as a waiter in a hotel, a hack driver, and a rigger. In 1861, he was forced to work aboard the CSS Planter, an armed transport and dispatch vessel that carried guns and ammunition for the Confederate army. On May 13, 1862, Robert Smalls and other enslaved people on board took charge of the ship in Charleston Harbor; he picked up his wife and children and others, succeeded in passing through Confederate checkpoints, and turned the ship, the weapons, and many important documents over to a Union naval squadron blockading the city. Smalls and the others on the steamship earned their freedom, and Robert Smalls became famous as a war hero throughout the North. Before the war was over, he became the first Black captain of a vessel in U.S. service.
After the war, he became a businessman and politician and made it to the U.S. House of Representatives and was elected to several terms.
You don’t usually come here for a history lesson, but I found his story inspiring. Robert was born into slavery, he was later forced to fight for the Confederacy, he became a hero for the Union army, and he was a U.S. Representative during the Reconstruction. He is part of America’s history.
What courageous things can I try to accomplish? What about you?
Thanks for allowing me to share this man’s brave journey during Black History Month.
Jackie Layton 