On the final episode of our special series Stories of the Civil War and Reconstruction, we examine the life of the remarkable Robert Smalls. In the midst of the Civil War, Smalls overtook a Confederate boat filled with 17 other enslaved people and steered it to freedom. This extraordinary act was the first of many, as Smalls spent the rest of his life fighting for equality and justice. Smalls led one of the nation’s first mass public transportation boycotts, started a school for African American children, and he eventually became one of the first African American men elected to Congress, where he served five terms.
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Kate Masur is associate professor of history at Northwestern University where she specializes in the study of the Civil War and Reconstruction.
Michael B. Moore is the CEO and president of the International African American Museum, slated to open in 2020 in Charleston, South Carolina, and the great-great-grandson of Robert Smalls.
Lana Ulrich is In-House Counsel at the National Constitution Center.
- Robert Smalls’ U.S. House biography page
- Photos of Smalls’ family from International African American Museum archives
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