ROBERT SMALLS,
THE UNSUNG
WAR HERO
AND LEGISLATOR
Last week Tim Scott was elected, the first black Senator from the South since Reconstruction. In all the coverage of his election, black history has been lost. The first black Senator from the South—born in North Carolina, elected in 1870—is never named. Another black politician—from South Carolina, a personal hero of mine—is never mentioned either. He was the longest-serving black congressmember until Adam Clayton Powell, Jr: Robert Smalls.
By Nick Douglas, AFROPUNK Contributor
I understand how the history leading up to Tim Scott might be hidden or obscured by his incendiary, divisive record in Congress. Scott would not join the Congressional Black Caucus. He is supported by the Tea Party. He wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act. He supports Arizona’s divisive immigration bill SB 1070.
But, while news of Tim Scott is being put forward, a divisive and rare black Republican, the much more interesting history is not being told. Black history is being hidden, truncated, disconnected from American history. For the public to know the more interesting back story, they will have to seek out the information themselves. We have 400 years of history here in the Americas. We must begin to integrate this fabulous history into the fabric of the history that is being taught and talked about today.
The first black Senator ever to serve in the U.S. Senate was Hiram Revels. He was elected from Mississippi in 1870. He had been born to free parents in North Carolina in 1838. When his credentials were presented to the Senate several senators tried to block his seating, saying he had not been a citizen for long enough (implying that blacks had only been Americans since passage of 1866 Civil Rights Act). A Senator who historically advocated for black civil rights, Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, insisted on a vote that successfully seated Revels.
During the Civil War, Revels helped form regiments of African American soldiers and established schools for freed slaves. After the war, Revels moved to Mississippi, where he won election to the State Senate. In recognition of his hard work and leadership skills, his legislative colleagues elected him to one of Mississippi’s vacant U.S. Senate seats as that state prepared to rejoin the Union. His term was brief. He served as Senator only until 1871 and later became president of Mississippi’s Alcorn College.
Another black legislator not mentioned is a war hero and a national treasure. His story is so moving and heroic that if it were held up next to Tim Scott’s we would never mention Scott’s name again. His name was Robert Smalls. While my words cannot fully express my admiration and the heroism of this man, I will mention just some of his incredible history.
Robert Smalls was born a slave in 1839 in Beaufort, South Carolina. He was rumored to be the son of slaveholder Henry McKee, his master.
As a child he was given more liberties than the other slave children, as Henry McKee took him around town and allowed him to play with white children. Young slave children were expected to work as much as adult slaves, so most had very little time to play. His mother Lydia Polite was alarmed at her child’s lack of understanding of slavery, so she asked McKee to send Smalls to a plantation where other members of her family lived. On the plantation he lived and worked like the other slaves. His mother also took him to the whipping post to show him how other slaves were punished.
The lesson she intended to teach her son worked, maybe too well. Around age 12, Smalls became defiant and more than once he found himself in the Beaufort jail for infractions like breaking curfew, which was 7 p.m. for slaves. Luckily, Henry McKee was there to bail him out.
Fearing for her son’s safety, Lydia Polite asked McKee to send him to Charleston to be loaned out to work. In Charleston, Smalls worked as a lamplighter, waiter, and laborer on the waterfront. He was allowed to keep one dollar a week from his work and sent the rest of his earnings to McKee. Smalls increased his earnings by buying candy and tobacco and reselling it. Finally, his intelligence, work ethic and skill landed him work on the vessel the Planter.
On the Planter, Smalls learned all the jobs aboard the ship and became an excellent pilot. Blacks were not allowed to captain vessels, so he became a wheelman.
At 19 he met and married Hannah Jones, a slave who was loaned out by her master to work in a hotel. After receiving their slaveholders’ permission, they moved into a small apartment together in Charleston. They had two children. Smalls attempted to buy Hannah and his children’s freedom but their slaveholder wanted $800, and Smalls had only about $100. So he lived with the constant threat of having his family broken up.
When the Civil War broke out, the Planter was commandeered by the Confederacy and converted into an armed transport ship, manned by three white sailors and a slave crew. In March 1862, while the white sailors spent the night ashore, Robert Smalls and the slave crew of the Planter executed one of the most daring escapes of the Civil War.
Smalls and the crew weighed anchor and headed for the Union blockade outside of Charleston harbor. Smalls shrewdly disguised himself as the captain of the Planter, going as far as wearing the captain’s naval coat, signature straw hat and mimicking the captain’s movements. Smalls had planned ahead to pick up his own family and the families of the slave crew. After picking up the families, he headed for Confederate lines, towards escape through the Union blockade.
In the early morning of March 13, 1862, with Smalls posing as the captain and even openly signaling to Confederate forts guarding the Charleston harbor, the Planter slipped past the four Confederate installations. After passing the gauntlet of Confederate forts, they approached the Union blockade. Smalls quickly took down the Planter’s Confederate flag and raised a white flag he had instructed his wife to bring from home.
The Union Navy was stunned to see an all black crew and their families aboard. Congress rewarded Smalls and the crew, paying them a bounty for the vessel and $1,500 to Smalls, a huge sum of money for those days. The story of the daring escape and the recognition of Congress made Robert Smalls a celebrity.
But Smalls was not finished. He used his celebrity to arrange an audience with Lincoln, urging him to let black soldiers fight in the Civil War. Smalls’ heroism, along with pressure from Congress and other advocates finally forced Lincoln to let blacks serve.
Smalls himself served as the captain of the Planter, the ship he had commandeered. He fought in 17 Civil War naval battles and provided the Union Navy valuable intelligence on Confederate naval strength, while recruiting more than 5,000 black soldiers to enlist.
Smalls’ life after the Civil War was as impressive as his military service. First he returned to Beaufort, South Carolina, where he purchased the house of his former slaveholder Henry McKee. From 1865 to 1871 he served as a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives. From 1871 to 1874 Smalls served in the State Senate. In 1874 he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and served as the representative of the 5th Congressional District from 1875 to 1879 and again from 1882 to 1883. From 1884 to 1887 he represented South Carolina’s 7th Congressional District.
Smalls was the longest-serving black member of Congress until Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. During his political service he actively opposed discrimination in the Army “made on account of race or color.” Blacks had gained the right to vote in 1867; in 1878 Smalls refused to sign legislation that white Democrats in South Carolina introduced to disenfranchise blacks.
Robert Smalls died in 1915. His house in Beaufort, South Carolina has been designated a National Historic Landmark.
The history of these two men again shows that black Americans were a driving force in making America the great country it is. They exemplified American values we hold dear: education, service, hard work, community involvement, and entrepreneurship. Too often black Americans are said to be lacking these values. Yet these two men are just two shining examples among thousands if we just took the time to look into our history. Black history in the U.S. did not begin and end with slavery, nor do black Americans owe our identity to Africa. Our history in the U.S. is an absolutely essential and equal part of what America is today. We need to stop playing the game of black history hide and seek.
Nick Douglas’ book: Finding Octave: The Untold Story of Two Creole Families and Slavery…. Blog: http://www.findingoctave.tumblr.com/
>via: http://www.afropunk.com/profiles/blogs/the-hide-and-seek-game-of-american-history-robert-smalls-the