Robert Smalls: podcast appearances and interviews

Robert Smalls was an American politician born into slavery in Beaufort, South Carolina, in 1839. During the American Civil War, he commandeered a Confederate transport ship in Charleston Harbor while still enslaved, sailing it from Confederate-controlled waters to the Union blockade. He then piloted the ship to the Union-controlled Beaufort–Port Royal–Hilton Head area, where it was incorporated as a Union warship. In doing so, Smalls freed himself, his crew, and their families. His actions and influence played a role in persuading President Abraham Lincoln to accept Black soldiers into the Union Army. After the Civil War, Smalls returned to Beaufort and entered politics as a Republican. He served in the South Carolina Legislature and the United States House of Representatives during Reconstruction. Smalls was instrumental in authoring legislation that established South Carolina's first free and compulsory public school system in the United States. Additionally, he was a founder of the Republican Party of South Carolina and was the last member of that party to represent South Carolina's 5th congressional district until 2010.