Description:

ROBERT SMALLS
(1839-1915) Black American sailor, Civil War hero, public official and U.S. Congressman. Smalls was born a slave in Beaufort, South Carolina to a house slave, Lydia, and a white man, most likely their master, John McKee. Later moving to Charleston with McKee, Smalls was permitted to hire himself out as a waiter, lamplighter, rigger and harbor pilot. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Smalls was employed as a wheelman on the Confederate transport steamer Planter. Smalls conceived a daring plan to seize the steamer and liberate himself, his family, his fellow crewmen and their loved ones by escaping Charleston Harbor under the cover of darkness and turning the ship over to the blockading Union fleet. At about 3 a.m. on May 13, 1862, the conspirators raised steam and departed the wharf while the guards tasked with keeping watch were ashore drinking. Using his thorough familiarity with the harbor and Confederate regulations, Smalls donned the straw hat worn by the Planter's white captain and mimicked his mannerisms to keep up the charade of a routine journey, as he guided the ship past the Confederate batteries at Fort Johnson and Fort Sumter. Leaving the harbor behind, the Planter approached the clipper USS Onward, raising a white bedsheet in place of the Confederate flag. Smalls turned the ship over to the Union Navy, along with its cargo of 200 pounds of ammunition, four artillery pieces, and secret Confederate code books. Following a tour of Washington, D.C., Smalls returned to service in Charleston Harbor, where he assisted the Navy in locating and removing naval mines, which he had helped lay while enslaved aboard the Planter, and served as a pilot and participated in at least seventeen combat engagements. On December 1, 1863, Smalls was piloting the Planter when Confederate batteries at Secessionville opened fire on the ship. When the captain fled to the coal bunker in terror, Smalls, fearing that he and other Black crewmen aboard would be summarily executed if they surrendered, took command of the ship and piloted it to safety, an act for which he was appointed acting captain of the Planter. Following the Confederate surrender, Smalls enjoyed a long and prominent career as one of the founders of the Republican party in South Carolina, being elected to the state House of Representatives in 1868, the state Senate in 1870, and finally the U.S. House of Representatives in 1874, where he served three terms. Presented here is a fine, large signature in black ink on a 6.5 x 3.5 in. slip of paper, adding ‘Beaufort So. Ca.' Shows a stray ink mark to the bottom right-hand corner, with some very faint toning to the extreme edges, otherwise in fine condition. A fine relic of one of the Union's most celebrated war heroes and a monumental figure in Black history!

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November 14, 2025 10:00 AM EST
Elkton, MD, US

Alexander Historical Auctions LLC

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