He Escaped Slavery and Became a Civil War Hero. Now, Robert Smalls Is Getting a Statue in South Carolina

South Carolina plans to erect a statue honoring Robert Smalls, a man who escaped slavery to become a Civil War hero and a lawmaker. It will be the first monument to an individual Black figure at the South Carolina State House in Columbia, reports the Associated Press’ Jeffrey Collins.

Legislators unanimously passed a bill to establish the statue earlier this year. A special commission charged with spearheading the effort has until January 15 to identify a location on the lawn of the State House, decide on a design and come up with funding.

The statue must be funded exclusively by donations, and it must be built by 2028, per WRDW-TV’s Mary Green.

“He’s someone that all South Carolinians can and should respect,” said Chip Campsen, a Republican South Carolina state senator, at a recent commission meeting, as reported by the State’s Anna Wilder. “He had a lot that he could be bitter about, but he did not. He set a course for the remainder of his life to try to make South Carolina a better place for all people of all races.”

Today, the 22-acre lawn of the South Carolina State House remains “dominated by memorials to the Confederacy,” writes the Post and Courier’s Nick Reynolds. They include a statue of Wade Hampton, an enslaver and Confederate general; an obelisk dedicated to Confederate veterans; a statue of J. Marion Sims, the white gynecologist who operated on enslaved women without pain relief or consent; and others. A marble copy of the Articles of Secession hangs in the State House lobby.

In 2001, the African American History Monument was erected on the grounds of the South Carolina State House. The $1.2 million piece, designed by Black artist Ed Dwight, features 12 panels of relief sculptures that tell the story of Black residents of South Carolina from 1619 to the present day.

Smalls was born into slavery in 1839 in Beaufort, South Carolina. At age 12, he was sent to Charleston, where he was hired out as an enslaved waiter and a dock worker, per the National Park Service (NPS). He married Hannah Jones in 1856, but because they were both enslaved, the state did not legally recognize their marriage. Together, they had three children.

When the Civil War began in 1861, Smalls was enslaved on a vessel called the Planter, which was being used as a Confederate transport ship.

On the evening of May 12, 1862, Smalls waited until the Planter’s white crew members left the vessel to go into Charleston. In the middle of the night, he and other enslaved crew members sailed the vessel out of Charleston Harbor to a nearby wharf, where members of their families were waiting.

Smalls, who was 23, disguised himself in Confederate clothes and a captain’s hat. Communicating with hand signals and whistles, he managed to pass through multiple Confederate checkpoints and reach a Union blockade seven miles from Charleston Harbor.

Smalls turned the ship over to the Union Navy and passed along information on Confederate operations in the area. He had sailed the ship—which carried 16 enslaved passengers—to freedom. His daring endeavor made him something of a hero in the North.

“Word of Smalls’ action got around,” wrote the Saturday Evening Post’s Troy Brownfield in 2021. “Letters flew among Union Naval leadership, particularly praising the Smalls plan and the intellect of the man behind it.”

Smalls began piloting Union naval vessels to fight against Confederate troops. He was eventually promoted to the rank of captain and made the commander of the Planter.

In January 1864, Smalls returned to his hometown and used the money he’d been awarded for turning over the Planter to buy his enslaver’s mansion. Today, that house is a private residence, but it’s listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and it’s part of the Reconstruction Era National Historic Network, per the NPS.

After his successful military career, Smalls started his own business, advocated for public education, organized boycotts and launched a career in politics. He served in the South Carolina House of Representatives and the South Carolina Senate before being elected to the United States Congress.

Among his political achievements, Smalls helped draft South Carolina’s Reconstruction-era constitution to promote equality and helped create the state’s public school system. He died in February 1915.

“The man has done so many great things. It’s just a travesty he has not been honored until now,” Jermaine Johnson, a Democratic state representative in South Carolina, tells the AP. “Heck, it’s also a travesty there isn’t some big Hollywood movie out there about his life.”

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Sarah Kuta is a writer and editor based in Longmont, Colorado. She covers history, science, travel, food and beverage, sustainability, economics and other topics.