E7 Hero Robert Smalls

Join us in celebrating Black History Month, where we retell the legendary tale of Robert Smalls a true American hero of the Civil War.

Robert Smalls, from Escaped Slave to House of Representatives. (2013, November 06). Retrieved January 20, 2021, from https://www.pbs.org/wnet/african-americans-many-rivers-to-cross/history/which-slave-sailed-himself-to-freedom/

Robert Smalls. (2021, January 19). Retrieved January 20, 2021, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Smalls


Did you know that the first public library in the, did you know that the first public library in the United States was founded in 1698 in Charlestown, South Carolina? It was founded by the Dr. Reverend Bray of the Episcopal Church.

This may be a long one. My allergies are being dumb. Hey y'all. Welcome back to Laura the South with me, your host Kelly Crews . We're in month two of 2021 and it's already been a wild year. I hope all of you are safe and staying healthy for this episode. I wanted to honor Black History Month and chose to tell y'all the amazing story of Robert Smalls.

This man is a true legend and why there hasn't been a movie made about him is beyond me. So settle back, 'cause we're headed down to coastal South Carolina, where our story begins in the late Antebellum period. Just a hair's breath. Before the Civil War I,

Robert Smalls was born April 5th, 1839, in a small cabin behind the big house of Mr. Henry McKee in Beaufort, South Carolina. His mother was an enslaved woman by the name of Lydia. Polite. It had been long speculated. It has been long speculated that Smalls Smalls, it had been long speculated that Small's owner was also his father.

Robert and his mother were both house slaves. Robert was raised along the McKee children, though he was excluded from their schoolwork. During this time in the Southern US it was considered dangerous to educate one slaves. You know, education might make someone ask questions or get ideas. Robert's mother, Lydia worried that her son was living too soft of a life.

Along the mc, along with the McKee children,

Robert's mother, Lydia worried that her son gum at my throat. Robert Smother. Lydia worried that her son was living too soft of a life growing up amongst the McKee children and feared that he would become too accepting of his law in the world around the age eight or so, around the age of eight or so. At her request, young Smalls was sent out to the McKees fields so that he could experience firsthand what his fellow enslaved people toiled in.

She at one point even brought him to a whipping so that there would be no doubt in his mind that the White Planter society firmly had a boot planted on all slaves necks no matter how free he felt while running along the river Banks with the Master's children. Her list. God, sorry, babe. Her lessons were to instill a defiance in Robert that wasn't appreciated by too many of the white men that Young Smalls would come into contact with.

He, in fact, found himself in Beaufort jails on a few occasions, always to be bailed out by Henry McKee in 1851. Robert. Okay, and God dang it. In 1851, when Robert was around the age of 12, Lydia made another request of McKee for her son to be found a place in Charleston so that he might learn a trade.

Robert's learning a trade would hopefully save him from the shortened life expectancy that filled hands faced. If a filled hand didn't die from the sheer brutality of the foreman or the overseer, then surely the swarms of mosquitoes he faced would. A trade might even save a trade. Might even save Robert from the vigilance of an offended white man.

McKee McKee secured young Robert a post at a Charleston hotel. Olive Roberts wages were sent back to Beaufort for McKee. Small was only allowed to keep $1 a week from his earnings. Smalls

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