Download Called "The Gullah Statesman," Robert Smalls served longer in

Called "The Gullah Statesman," Robert Smalls served longer in Congress than any other black
Carolinian except Joseph Hayne Rainey. After reading Smalls' biography that is provided, complete
the activities on the next page. (See page 245 in your textbook for a picture of Robert Smalls.)
ROBERT SMALLS
The future Civil War hero and Congressman was born into slavery on April 5, 1839, the
only child of Lydia, a house-servant of Henry McKee of Beaufort. Young Robert became the
favorite of his new master, John McKee who inherited him in 1848. Afraid that her son would
not understand the horrors of slavery, Lydia forced her son to watch slaves being whipped in the
Beaufort jail and to attend slave auctions at the Arsenal. In 1851 at the age of seventeen Smalls
was hired out to work in Charleston. Eventually he was allowed to purchase his families freedom
and that of his wife, whom he married in 1856.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, Smalls was pressed into service by the Confederate
authorities to pilot The Planter, a transport steamer assigned to Charleston harbor and the coastal
waterways. In the cold hours before dawn on May 13, 1862, Smalls and the black members of
the crew seized the ship and sailed it into the Union lines. On December 1, 1863, when the
commander of The Planter deserted under attack, Smalls took charge and maneuvered the ship to
safety. Subsequently he was promoted to the rank of captain and given command of the steamer.
During Reconstruction Smalls became political leader of his native district and earned the
title, "King of Beaufort." A Republican, he nevertheless won the respect of whites by his
moderate political views and his charity toward the family of his former owner. He was elected
to the state
House of Representatives and the state Senate, and from 1875 to 1887, with the exception of two
years, Smalls represented South Carolina in Congress.
When the Democrats gained political control of the state in 1876, Smalls was convicted of
accepting a bribe while in the state Senate. He was pardoned by the governor, and a member of
the investigating committee agreed with the editor of the Charleston News and Courier that
Smalls "could not be convicted before a jury of impartial white men anywhere on the same
evidence today (1895)."
In the last years of his life, from 1889 to 1913, whenever the Republican Party was in
power, Smalls served as Collector of the Port of Beaufort. His last noteworthy public service was
in the state Constitutional Convention of 1895. He made a valiant, but ill-fated effort to stop the
disfranchisement of black citizens. "I was born and raised in South Carolina and today I live on
the very spot on which I was born," he told the convention. "My race needs no special defense,
for the past history of them in this country proves them to be the equal of any people anywhere.
All they need is an equal chance in the battle of life."
ROBERT SMALLS
After reading the biography of Robert Smalls, place the following events in Smalls' life in the proper
chronological order by numbering them from 1 to 7.
_____ Served as Collector of the Port of Beaufort.
_____ Represented South Carolina in Congress.
_____ Hired out at 17 to work in Charleston.
_____ Born the only child of Lydia, a house slave, in 1859.
_____ Promoted to captain and given the command of The Planter.
_____ Became the hero of The Planter by sailing it to the Union fleet.
_____ Attempted to prevent disfranchisement of blacks in the Constitutional Convention of 1895.
On the back of this sheet write an obituary for Robert Smalls. Include when and where he was
born and three significant details of his life. Also create and draw a picture of his tombstone.