[music playing]
Born into slavery in 1839, Robert Smalls
was a smart, rugged man determined
to find a pathway to freedom.
As a teenager, he worked as a rigger on ships
before eventually becoming a sailor.
In 1856, Smalls got married, started a family,
and labored to try and buy freedom
for himself, his wife, and his kids.
But it wasn't easy or cheap.
The cost was $800 or the equivalent of $23,000 today.
After years of hard work, Robert Smalls had just saved $100.
It would take him decades to afford his family's freedom.
Like so many enslaved people, Smalls lived in constant fear
that his family would be sold or separated.
Once apart, most families never saw each other again.
He knew the only way he could truly
make sure his family stayed together
was to escape slavery altogether.
So, Robert Smalls hatched a plan to get him
and his family to freedom.
When the Civil War broke out in March of 1861,
he finally saw his chance and decided to make his move.
He got a job working as a deckhand
on a Confederate steamship named The Planter that
carried supplies between ports.
Over the next few months, Smalls learned everything
he possibly could about sailing The Planter
and waited for the perfect chance to escape.
Finally, his chance came on May 13, 1862.
Just before dawn, Robert Smalls led seven other men
down to the docks, where they quietly stole The Planter
while the slave owners slept.
Over the next few hours, the team
slowly but surely sailed the steamship to a pickup point,
brought eight more family members on board,
then carefully worked their way through
the heavily-fortified harbor.
The ship still needed to pass through five
different Confederate checkpoints
before they hit open water.
If centuries at any of the fortifications or batteries
realized something was amiss, they could easily
destroy The Planter in seconds.
Each checkpoint was a chance to get caught,
but Robert Smalls took the risk.
He gave the right secret signals to pass through safely
each time.
At last, Robert Smalls and his family
entered the open ocean, free from Confederate control.
The steamer sped straight toward the closest union ship,
taking down their Confederate flags as quickly
as they could, hoisting a white bedsheet signal
surrender before the ship fired on them
thinking they were the enemy.
Luckily, no shots were fired, and Robert Smalls
and his family were able to join the union ranks.
Despite all the odds, they had managed
to make it through the gauntlet all the way to freedom.
In just under four hours, Robert Smalls
had managed to commandeer a heavily-armored Confederate
steamer in the middle of the Civil War
and deliver his family safely from slavery to freedom.
Smalls was awarded $1,500 cash by the US government
for delivering an enemy ship full of Confederate documents
in his daring escape.
He went on to formally join the Union Army
and carried out 17 missions for the US.
After the war, Robert Smalls went on
to do something must have seemed unthinkable to him
when he was a young man.
He bought his former slave owners' home
in Beaufort, South Carolina.
He started a newspaper and opened
a school for African-American children
before becoming a state senator in South Carolina.
Smalls stayed active in politics and the community
right up until his death in 1915 at the age of 75.
A well-deserved happy ending for a man
who defied every danger to deliver his family to freedom
and managed to look pretty cool doing it.