Download or read book Be Free Or Die The Amazing Story of Robert Smalls Escape from Slavery to Union Hero written by Cate Lineberry and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2017-06-20 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It was a mild May morning in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1862, the second year of the Civil War, when a 23-year-old enslaved man named Robert Smalls boldly seized a Confederate steamer. With his wife and two young children hidden on board, Smalls and a small crew ran a gauntlet of heavily armed fortifications in Charleston Harbour and delivered the valuable vessel and the massive guns it carried to nearby Union forces. Smalls' courageous and ingenious act freed him and his family from slavery and immediately made him a Union hero. It also challenged much of the country's view of what African Americans were willing to do for their freedom. In 'Be Free or Die, ' Cate Lineberry tells the remarkable story of Smalls' escape and his many accomplishments during the war, including becoming the first black captain of an Army vessel
Download or read book Yearning to Breathe Free written by Andrew Billingsley and published by Univ of South Carolina Press. This book was released on 2021-03-05 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A sociological approach to appreciating the heroism and legacy of the Gullah statesman On May 13, 1862, Robert Smalls (1839-1915) commandeered a Confederate warship, the Planter, from Charleston harbor and piloted the vessel to cheering seamen of the Union blockade, thus securing his place in the annals of Civil War heroics. Slave, pilot, businessman, statesman, U.S. congressman—Smalls played many roles en route to becoming an American icon, but none of his accomplishments was a solo effort. Sociologist Andrew Billingsley offers the first biography of Smalls to assess the influence of his families—black and white, past and present—on his life and enduring legend. In so doing, Billingsley creates a compelling mosaic of evolving black-white social relations in the American South as exemplified by this famous figure and his descendants. Born a slave in Beaufort, South Carolina, Robert Smalls was raised with his master's family and grew up amid an odd balance of privilege and bondage which instilled in him an understanding of and desire for freedom, culminating in his daring bid for freedom in 1862. Smalls served with distinction in the Union forces at the helm of the Planter and, after the war, he returned to Beaufort to buy the home of his former masters—a house that remained at the center of the Smalls family for a century. A founder of the South Carolina Republican Party, Smalls was elected to the state house of representatives, the state senate, and five times to the United States Congress. Throughout the trials and triumphs of his military and public service, he was surrounded by growing family of supporters. Billingsley illustrates how this support system, coupled with Smalls's dogged resilience, empowered him for success. Writing of subsequent generations of the Smalls family, Billingsley delineates the evolving patterns of opportunity, challenge, and change that have been the hallmarks of the African American experience thanks to the selfless investments in freedom and family made by Robert Smalls of South Carolina.
Download or read book The Escape of Robert Smalls written by Jehan Jones-Radgowski and published by . This book was released on 2019-09 with total page 41 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The mist in Charleston Inner Harbor was heavy, but not heavy enough to disguise the stolen Confederate steamship, the Planter, from Confederate soldiers. In the early hours of May 13, 1862, in the midst of the deadly U.S. Civil War, an enslaved man named Robert Smalls was about to carry out a perilous plan of escape. Standing at the helm of the ship, Smalls impersonated the captain as he and his crew passed heavily armed Confederate forts to enter Union territory, where escaped slaves were given shelter. The suspenseful escape of the determined crew is celebrated with beautiful artwork and insightful prose, detailing the true account of an unsung American hero.
Download or read book The Freedom Ship of Robert Smalls written by Louise Meriwether and published by Univ of South Carolina Press. This book was released on 2018-02-15 with total page 25 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The true story of an enslaved African American man who escaped to freedom and became a military and political leader Robert Smalls, born a slave in 1839 in Beaufort, South Carolina, gained fame as an African American hero of the American Civil War. The Freedom Ship of Robert Smalls tells the inspirational story of Small's life as a slave, his boyhood dream of freedom, and his bold and daring plan as a young man to commandeer a Confederate gunboat from Charleston Harbor and escape with fifteen fellow slaves and family members. Smalls joined the Union Navy and rose to the rank of captain and became the first African American to command a U.S. service ship. After the war Smalls returned to Beaufort, bought the home of his former master, and began a long career in state and national politics. This new edition of The Freedom Ship of Robert Smalls, originally published in 1971, features Louise Meriwether's original narrative, now illustrated by the colorful paintings of renowned Southern artist Jonathan Green.
Download or read book Gullah Statesman written by Edward A. Miller, Jr. and published by Univ of South Carolina Press. This book was released on 2021-12-23 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A political biography of the first African American hero of the Civil War A native of Beaufort, South Carolina, Robert Smalls was born into slavery but—through acts of remarkable courage and determination—became the first African American hero of the Civil War and one of the most influential African American politicians in South Carolina history. In this largely political biography of Smalls's inspirational story, Edward A. Miller, Jr., traces the triumphs and setbacks of the celebrated U.S. congressman and advocate of compulsory, desegregated public education to illustrate how the life and contributions of this singular individual were indicative of the rise and fall of political influence for all African Americans during this rough transitional period in American history.
Download or read book Robert Smalls Sails to Freedom written by Susan Taylor Brown and published by Millbrook Press. This book was released on 2005-12-15 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The true story of a fugitive slave's escape to freedom.
Download or read book Seven Miles to Freedom written by Janet Halfmann and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Growing up a slave in South Carolina, Robert Smalls always dreamed of the moment freedom would be within his grasp. Now that moment was here.Robert stood proudly at the Planter's wheel. Only seven miles of water lay between the ship and the chance of freedom in Union territory. With precision and amazing courage, he navigated past the Confederate forts in the harbor and steered the ship toward the safety of the Union fleet. Just one miscalculation would be deadly, but for Robert, his family, and his crewmates, the risk was worth taking.Seven Miles to Freedomis the compelling account of the daring escape of Robert Smalls, a slave steamboat wheelman who became one of the Civil War's greatest heroes. His steadfast courage in the face of adversity is an inspiring model for all who attempt to overcome seemingly insurmountable challenges.
Download or read book Captain of the Planter written by Dorothy Sterling and published by Simon Pulse. This book was released on 1968 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Civil war hero and a courageous congressman fight for civil rights.
Download or read book A Fire eater Remembers written by Robert Barnwell Rhett and published by Univ of South Carolina Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Some people called Robert Barnwell Rhett the Father of Secession. This book illuminates Rhett's role in secession's time and passage. It tells of Rhett's interest in secession doctrine as early as 1828 and his outspoken support of disunion fully a quarter-century before 1861.
Download or read book Robert Smalls Papers written by Robert Smalls and published by . This book was released on 1865 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Request for a set of Baxter Reports, 26 July 1876.
Download or read book From Slavery to Public Service Robert Smalls 1839 1915 written by Okon Edet Uya and published by . This book was released on 1971 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Robert Smalls, the black Civil War hero, began his public career by running a Confederate vessel out of Charleston harbor and turning it over to the Union naval blockade. He went on to become a controversial political figure in Reconstruction Era South Carolina. In this study, Mr. Uya sketches a portrait of one of the most colorful personalities of the Reconstruction decades, placing his career and contributions in balanced, historical perspective." --page 4 of cover.
Download or read book The Risen Phoenix written by Luis-Alejandro Dinnella-Borrego and published by University of Virginia Press. This book was released on 2016-07-11 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Risen Phoenix charts the changing landscape of black politics and political culture in the postwar South by focusing on the careers of six black congressmen who served between the Civil War and the turn of the nineteenth century: John Mercer Langston of Virginia, James Thomas Rapier of Alabama, Robert Smalls of South Carolina, John Roy Lynch of Mississippi, Josiah Thomas Walls of Florida, and George Henry White of North Carolina. Drawing on a rich combination of traditional political history, gender and black history, and the history of U.S. foreign relations, the book argues that African American congressmen effectively served their constituents’ interests while also navigating their way through a tumultuous post–Civil War Southern political environment. Black congressmen represented their constituents by advancing a policy agenda encompassing strong civil rights protections, economic modernization, and expanded access to education. Local developments such as antiblack aggression and violent electoral contests shaped the policies supported by newly elected black congressmen, including the tactical decision to support amnesty for ex-Confederates. Yet black congressmen ultimately embraced their role as national leaders and as spokesmen not only for their congressional districts and states but for all African Americans throughout the South. As these black leaders searched for effective ways to respond to white supremacy, disenfranchisement, segregation, and lynching, they challenged the barriers of prejudice, paving the way for future black struggles for equality in the twentieth century.
Download or read book The Wars of Reconstruction written by Douglas R. Egerton and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2014-01-21 with total page 552 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A groundbreaking new history, telling the stories of hundreds of African-American activists and officeholders who risked their lives for equality-in the face of murderous violence-in the years after the Civil War. By 1870, just five years after Confederate surrender and thirteen years after the Dred Scott decision ruled blacks ineligible for citizenship, Congressional action had ended slavery and given the vote to black men. That same year, Hiram Revels and Joseph Hayne Rainey became the first African-American U.S. senator and congressman respectively. In South Carolina, only twenty years after the death of arch-secessionist John C. Calhoun, a black man, Jasper J. Wright, took a seat on the state's Supreme Court. Not even the most optimistic abolitionists thought such milestones would occur in their lifetimes. The brief years of Reconstruction marked the United States' most progressive moment prior to the civil rights movement. Previous histories of Reconstruction have focused on Washington politics. But in this sweeping, prodigiously researched narrative, Douglas Egerton brings a much bigger, even more dramatic story into view, exploring state and local politics and tracing the struggles of some fifteen hundred African-American officeholders, in both the North and South, who fought entrenched white resistance. Tragically, their movement was met by ruthless violence-not just riotous mobs, but also targeted assassination. With stark evidence, Egerton shows that Reconstruction, often cast as a “failure” or a doomed experiment, was rolled back by murderous force. The Wars of Reconstruction is a major and provocative contribution to American history.
Download or read book Trouble the Water written by Rebecca Dwight Bruff and published by Koehler Books. This book was released on 2019-06-04 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Inspired by the life of an unsung American hero and slave, Trouble the Water navigates the rich tributaries of courage, betrayal, and redemption. In his inspiring journey, Robert Smalls witnesses great privilege and suffering alongside his owner's daughter and the dangerous son of a firebrand secessionist.
Download or read book Robert F Kennedy Jr s American Heroes written by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and published by Hyperion Books for Children. This book was released on 2007-09-25 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents the life of the Civil War general from Maine whose skill as a commander in twenty-four battles, despite being wounded six times, made him a symbol for bravery and perseverance for the Union side.
Download or read book Freedom Ship written by Doreen Rappaport and published by Jump At The Sun. This book was released on 2006-10-01 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Samual and his family are born slaves. Every day they look beyond the harbor filled with Confederate ships, to the Atlantic Ocean, where the Union ships are--and potentially, their freedom. If only they could get to those ships somehow....Then, on May13, 1862, Samuel and his family risk it all to be free. /DIV DIVBased on a true story, Doreen Rappaport weaves a riveting tale of a boy and his family aboard the gunboat Planter. Captained by Robert Smalls and loaded with fellow slaves, the ship flees to the Union fleet to gain freedom from slavery and deliver much-needed ammunition to the Union Navy. Rappaport's suspenseful account, illustrated with the moody paintings of Curtis James, creates a vivid and relatable picture of this little-known tale of the civil war.
Download or read book Four Took Freedom written by Philip Sterling and published by . This book was released on 1967 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Biographical portraits of four famous Negro Americans who escaped the slavery into which they were born to further the fight for freedom and equality.
