WEBVTT
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You know that moment when you're trying to leave and
2
00:00:04.440 --> 00:00:08.480
everything is in your hands at once, one thing sliding,
3
00:00:08.960 --> 00:00:12.560
one thing too heavy, one thing you're trying not to drop.
4
00:00:13.279 --> 00:00:17.440
Robert Smalls had that feeling in Charleston Harbor, except the
5
00:00:17.559 --> 00:00:21.719
thing he couldn't drop was a Confederate warship, his family,
6
00:00:22.320 --> 00:00:24.920
and the only chance they had to get out alive.
7
00:00:25.239 --> 00:00:27.879
He was enslaved, but he was also the person who
8
00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:32.280
knew that harbor better than almost anyone. As a teenager,
9
00:00:32.520 --> 00:00:36.159
he'd been pushed into maritime work, starting on the docks
10
00:00:36.200 --> 00:00:40.399
and moving through rigging, sail making, and wheelman duties. So
11
00:00:40.439 --> 00:00:45.399
he learned tides, channels, signals, and the tiny details that
12
00:00:45.520 --> 00:00:49.719
matter when water gets narrow and men with guns get nervous.
13
00:00:50.880 --> 00:00:54.119
Then the Confederacy did the fatal mistake of putting the
14
00:00:54.159 --> 00:00:57.079
smartest guy in the room right on the ship they
15
00:00:57.119 --> 00:01:01.320
needed to run. I mean, great staff decision if your
16
00:01:01.359 --> 00:01:06.159
goal is accidental sabotage. By eighteen sixty two, when he
17
00:01:06.280 --> 00:01:09.879
was twenty three, he was serving as pilot on the Planter.
18
00:01:10.439 --> 00:01:13.840
On the night of May twelfth into May thirteen, the
19
00:01:13.879 --> 00:01:18.439
White officers went ashore to sleep, and Smalls waited then
20
00:01:18.519 --> 00:01:21.799
he and the other enslaved crew moved the Planter out
21
00:01:21.799 --> 00:01:25.680
of the dock quietly, like they'd done it one hundred times,
22
00:01:26.239 --> 00:01:29.319
only this time they weren't running Confederate errands. They were
23
00:01:29.359 --> 00:01:33.120
going to pick up their families. A pre arranged stop
24
00:01:33.200 --> 00:01:37.719
in the harbor brought wives, children, and other freedom seekers aboard.
25
00:01:38.280 --> 00:01:41.599
Different accounts put the total at sixteen or seventeen people,
26
00:01:42.079 --> 00:01:44.560
and then Smalls had to thread the ship passed at
27
00:01:44.640 --> 00:01:48.640
least five forts using the right whistle patterns and hand signals,
28
00:01:49.040 --> 00:01:51.719
with a straw hat on that helped him look from
29
00:01:51.760 --> 00:01:54.439
a distance like the man he was pretending to be.
30
00:01:56.079 --> 00:01:58.920
This is the part that still gets me. Once the
31
00:01:58.959 --> 00:02:03.680
ship cleared the last Confederate battery, Smalls lowered the Confederate
32
00:02:03.680 --> 00:02:09.280
flag and raised a white one. The Union blockade saw
33
00:02:09.439 --> 00:02:13.759
an armed Confederate steamer coming straight toward it, and for
34
00:02:13.840 --> 00:02:16.680
a moment they had every reason to think it was
35
00:02:16.719 --> 00:02:20.719
a trap. Then they realized what they were looking at.
36
00:02:21.039 --> 00:02:24.879
The Planter became a prize of war, and with it
37
00:02:25.039 --> 00:02:29.840
came artillery, a codebook, and maps of harbor mines. So
38
00:02:29.960 --> 00:02:34.240
the Union didn't just get a ship, it got intelligence,
39
00:02:34.560 --> 00:02:38.840
and it got humiliation. For the Confederacy. That was hard
40
00:02:38.879 --> 00:02:43.520
to miss, and Smalls didn't disappear after that. He served
41
00:02:43.520 --> 00:02:47.520
the Union as a pilot and later commanded the USS Planter,
42
00:02:48.159 --> 00:02:50.800
becoming one of the first black men to command a
43
00:02:51.039 --> 00:02:55.960
US military vessel. His escape wasn't only a freedom story.
44
00:02:56.280 --> 00:03:00.280
It became proof, out loud and in public that black
45
00:03:00.400 --> 00:03:04.080
men could do the work, handle the danger, and lead.
46
00:03:04.840 --> 00:03:08.479
That mattered in the war because it gave abolitionists and
47
00:03:08.560 --> 00:03:12.560
recruiters something concrete to point to when they argued for
48
00:03:12.680 --> 00:03:18.039
black enlistment, not theory. A man a ship a result.
49
00:03:18.400 --> 00:03:22.879
After the war, he carried that same force into reconstruction politics,
50
00:03:23.240 --> 00:03:28.000
serving in South Carolina's legislature and then in Congress, pushing
51
00:03:28.039 --> 00:03:32.639
for public education and civil rights while white supremacist violence
52
00:03:32.719 --> 00:03:35.960
tried to shove black leaders back out of the room.
53
00:03:36.360 --> 00:03:39.199
He even bought the house in Beaufort where he had
54
00:03:39.240 --> 00:03:43.039
once been enslaved. That detail is almost too plain to
55
00:03:43.080 --> 00:03:46.879
be real. The place that once held him became part
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00:03:46.919 --> 00:03:50.000
of his life as a freeman, and that's why I
57
00:03:50.159 --> 00:03:54.280
keep coming back to Robert Small's on that dock in Charleston,
58
00:03:54.719 --> 00:03:58.000
with everything in his hands and the harbor in front
59
00:03:58.000 --> 00:04:01.039
of him, He did not let the future slip away.
60
00:04:01.599 --> 00:04:04.400
He kept hold of it, and his family got out
1
00:00:01.520 --> 00:00:04.160
You know that moment when you're trying to leave and
2
00:00:04.440 --> 00:00:08.480
everything is in your hands at once, one thing sliding,
3
00:00:08.960 --> 00:00:12.560
one thing too heavy, one thing you're trying not to drop.
4
00:00:13.279 --> 00:00:17.440
Robert Smalls had that feeling in Charleston Harbor, except the
5
00:00:17.559 --> 00:00:21.719
thing he couldn't drop was a Confederate warship, his family,
6
00:00:22.320 --> 00:00:24.920
and the only chance they had to get out alive.
7
00:00:25.239 --> 00:00:27.879
He was enslaved, but he was also the person who
8
00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:32.280
knew that harbor better than almost anyone. As a teenager,
9
00:00:32.520 --> 00:00:36.159
he'd been pushed into maritime work, starting on the docks
10
00:00:36.200 --> 00:00:40.399
and moving through rigging, sail making, and wheelman duties. So
11
00:00:40.439 --> 00:00:45.399
he learned tides, channels, signals, and the tiny details that
12
00:00:45.520 --> 00:00:49.719
matter when water gets narrow and men with guns get nervous.
13
00:00:50.880 --> 00:00:54.119
Then the Confederacy did the fatal mistake of putting the
14
00:00:54.159 --> 00:00:57.079
smartest guy in the room right on the ship they
15
00:00:57.119 --> 00:01:01.320
needed to run. I mean, great staff decision if your
16
00:01:01.359 --> 00:01:06.159
goal is accidental sabotage. By eighteen sixty two, when he
17
00:01:06.280 --> 00:01:09.879
was twenty three, he was serving as pilot on the Planter.
18
00:01:10.439 --> 00:01:13.840
On the night of May twelfth into May thirteen, the
19
00:01:13.879 --> 00:01:18.439
White officers went ashore to sleep, and Smalls waited then
20
00:01:18.519 --> 00:01:21.799
he and the other enslaved crew moved the Planter out
21
00:01:21.799 --> 00:01:25.680
of the dock quietly, like they'd done it one hundred times,
22
00:01:26.239 --> 00:01:29.319
only this time they weren't running Confederate errands. They were
23
00:01:29.359 --> 00:01:33.120
going to pick up their families. A pre arranged stop
24
00:01:33.200 --> 00:01:37.719
in the harbor brought wives, children, and other freedom seekers aboard.
25
00:01:38.280 --> 00:01:41.599
Different accounts put the total at sixteen or seventeen people,
26
00:01:42.079 --> 00:01:44.560
and then Smalls had to thread the ship passed at
27
00:01:44.640 --> 00:01:48.640
least five forts using the right whistle patterns and hand signals,
28
00:01:49.040 --> 00:01:51.719
with a straw hat on that helped him look from
29
00:01:51.760 --> 00:01:54.439
a distance like the man he was pretending to be.
30
00:01:56.079 --> 00:01:58.920
This is the part that still gets me. Once the
31
00:01:58.959 --> 00:02:03.680
ship cleared the last Confederate battery, Smalls lowered the Confederate
32
00:02:03.680 --> 00:02:09.280
flag and raised a white one. The Union blockade saw
33
00:02:09.439 --> 00:02:13.759
an armed Confederate steamer coming straight toward it, and for
34
00:02:13.840 --> 00:02:16.680
a moment they had every reason to think it was
35
00:02:16.719 --> 00:02:20.719
a trap. Then they realized what they were looking at.
36
00:02:21.039 --> 00:02:24.879
The Planter became a prize of war, and with it
37
00:02:25.039 --> 00:02:29.840
came artillery, a codebook, and maps of harbor mines. So
38
00:02:29.960 --> 00:02:34.240
the Union didn't just get a ship, it got intelligence,
39
00:02:34.560 --> 00:02:38.840
and it got humiliation. For the Confederacy. That was hard
40
00:02:38.879 --> 00:02:43.520
to miss, and Smalls didn't disappear after that. He served
41
00:02:43.520 --> 00:02:47.520
the Union as a pilot and later commanded the USS Planter,
42
00:02:48.159 --> 00:02:50.800
becoming one of the first black men to command a
43
00:02:51.039 --> 00:02:55.960
US military vessel. His escape wasn't only a freedom story.
44
00:02:56.280 --> 00:03:00.280
It became proof, out loud and in public that black
45
00:03:00.400 --> 00:03:04.080
men could do the work, handle the danger, and lead.
46
00:03:04.840 --> 00:03:08.479
That mattered in the war because it gave abolitionists and
47
00:03:08.560 --> 00:03:12.560
recruiters something concrete to point to when they argued for
48
00:03:12.680 --> 00:03:18.039
black enlistment, not theory. A man a ship a result.
49
00:03:18.400 --> 00:03:22.879
After the war, he carried that same force into reconstruction politics,
50
00:03:23.240 --> 00:03:28.000
serving in South Carolina's legislature and then in Congress, pushing
51
00:03:28.039 --> 00:03:32.639
for public education and civil rights while white supremacist violence
52
00:03:32.719 --> 00:03:35.960
tried to shove black leaders back out of the room.
53
00:03:36.360 --> 00:03:39.199
He even bought the house in Beaufort where he had
54
00:03:39.240 --> 00:03:43.039
once been enslaved. That detail is almost too plain to
55
00:03:43.080 --> 00:03:46.879
be real. The place that once held him became part
56
00:03:46.919 --> 00:03:50.000
of his life as a freeman, and that's why I
57
00:03:50.159 --> 00:03:54.280
keep coming back to Robert Small's on that dock in Charleston,
58
00:03:54.719 --> 00:03:58.000
with everything in his hands and the harbor in front
59
00:03:58.000 --> 00:04:01.039
of him, He did not let the future slip away.
60
00:04:01.599 --> 00:04:04.400
He kept hold of it, and his family got out
