Robert Smalls, Ship's Pilot

Robert Smalls, Ship's Pilot

1839–1915 · South Carolina. Enslaved in Beaufort and Charleston; worked the docks and learned the harbour until he was the wheelman, the pilot in all but title, of the Confederate transport Planter.

May 13, 1862. Before dawn, with the white officers ashore, he took the Planter out of Charleston harbour past Confederate forts, giving the right whistle signals, with his family and other enslaved people aboard. He surrendered the ship to the Union blockade.

Later. Pilot for the Union Navy, businessman, and five-term U.S. Congressman.

The trade. Piloting is local knowledge: channels, tides, signals, currents. Gallery G6 teaches it.

Hall of Makers · a historical maker until local oral histories are recorded. Scan for the full story.

Scan for the reading · newschoolworks.com/q/B8C9W4B8C9W4