Robert Smalls | Palmetto Special

REENACTMENT: The lesson focuses on a mission in which Robert Smalls was sent to convince President Lincoln to arm Negro troops in the South Carolina Lowcountry to fight for the Union. This is done in retrospective context through an interview with a reporter from The New York Enterprise, a black newspaper that had criticized Mr. Smalls after his defeat from Congress. Mr. Smalls reminds the reporter of the many positive things that he achieved for his constituents.

BACKGROUND: Robert Smalls was born a slave in Beaufort. His mother, Lydia, was a house servant. His father purportedly was the master though scholars mention the possibility of others. In his younger years, Robert Smalls was given many advantages not available to most slave children. As a young teenager, he was sent to Charleston where he lived with McKees, his master's sister. There he held various jobs. He worked on the wharves driving a hoisting horse that guided the bales of cotton as they were lifted from the pier to the high decks of the steamers. By the time he was fifteen, he was made foreman. The job that he liked most was testing boats in all sorts of weather. He studied maps and charts, traced channels, studied currents and tides and memorized the location of the shoals and reefs in the Charleston Harbor.

By the time of the Civil War he had complete mastery of the harbors and waterways of the South Carolina and Georgia sea coasts. He soon was offered a job on a steamer called the Planter. After the war began, he became its pilot. He remained in this position after the Confederate Government chartered the Planter and converted it into a special dispatch boat for the defense of Charleston. The Planter had a carrying capacity of a thousand men. He was soon elevated to the position of wheelman, a position of trust and honor. On the morning of May 13, 1862, Robert Smalls carried through a plan to take himself, his wife and children and a few friends aboard the Planter and turn it over to a Federal ship just outside Charleston Harbor. Following this he served in the United States Navy. After the war, he became a prominent political figure in South Carolina until his death in 1915.

Standards

• 3-4 The student will demonstrate an understanding of life in the antebellum period, the causes and effects of the Civil War, and the impact of Reconstruction in South Carolina.
  • South Carolina played a key role in events that occurred before, during, and after the Civil War; and those events, in turn, greatly affected the state. To understand South Carolina’s experiences during this tumultuous time, the student will uti...
    • 3-4.4 Summarize the course of the Civil War in South Carolina, including the Secession Convention, the firing on Fort Sumter, the Union blockade of Charleston, the significance of the Hunley submarine; the exploits of Robert Smalls; and General William...
• This indicator was developed to encourage inquiry into founding principles as viewed through this period of federal government involvement, the development and realignment of a new labor system not based on a system of slavery, and the significant political realignment of the South.
  • This indicator was developed to encourage inquiry into how Reconstruction resulted in the foundation for the struggle for civil rights. This indicator was also developed to foster inquiry into Reconstruction Era policies such as Constitutional amendme...
  • 4.5.CO Compare the roles of various groups on Reconstruction.
• 8-4 The student will demonstrate an understanding of the multiple events that led to the Civil War.
  • The outbreak of the Civil War was the culminating event in a decades-long series of regional issues that threatened American unity and South Carolina’s identity as one of the United States. To understand how South Carolina came to be at the cent...
    • 8-4.5 Compare the military strategies of the North and the South during the Civil War and the fulfillment of these strategies in South Carolina and in the South as a whole, including the attack on Fort Sumter, the Union blockade of Charleston and other...
• This indicator was developed to encourage inquiry into the significant causes of World War I and the factors leading to U.S. involvement. This indicator was also developed to promote inquiry into the effects of the war, to include its impact on the homefront, migration patterns, and continued foreign policy debates.
  • This indicator was developed to encourage inquiry into how the former planter class, African Americans, women, and others adjusted to, gained, lost, and/or regained position and status during Reconstruction. This indicator was also written to foster i...