South Carolina to build the first monument to an African American. Meet Robert Smalls

Associated Press

BEAUFORT, SC (AP) – South Carolina is preparing to place its first individual statue of an African-American on the lawn of its Statehouse, honoring a man who donned Confederate garb to steal the ship from ‘a slave owner and sail his family and a dozen others. to freedom during the Civil War.

But Robert Smalls isn’t just being honored for his daring escape. He spent a decade in the U.S. House, helped rewrite the South Carolina constitution to allow equality for black men after the Civil War, and then waged a valiant but doomed fight when racists returned to power and they wiped out almost all the gains Smalls fought for.

Representative Jermaine Johnson can’t wait to bring his children to the Statehouse to finally see someone who is black like them honored.

“The man has done so many great things, it’s just a travesty that he hasn’t been honored until now. Heck, it’s also a travesty that there isn’t a big Hollywood movie about his life,” said Johnson, a Democrat from a district a few miles from the Statehouse.

The idea of ​​a statue for Smalls has been percolating for years. But there was always quiet opposition that kept a bill from getting a hearing. That changed in 2024, as the proposal made it unanimously in the state House and Senate behind Republican Rep. Brandon Cox of Goose Creek.

“South Carolina is a great state. We have a lot of history, good and bad. This is our good history,” Cox said.

What will the Robert Smalls memorial look like?

The bill created a special committee that has until Jan. 15 to come up with a design, a location on the Statehouse lawn and the money to pay for whatever memorial they choose.

But fans face a challenging question: What honors Smalls the most?

If it’s just a statue, it’s better to honor the pilot of the nervous steel ship who waited for all the white crew to leave, then imitated the hand signals and whistles to get through the Confederate checkpoints, while he hoped that the Confederate soldiers would not notice a black? man under the hat in the pale moonlight in may 1862?

Or would a more fitting tribute to Smalls be to recognize the statesman who served in the South Carolina House and Senate and the US House after the Civil War? Smalls bought his master’s home in Beaufort in part with money made to deliver the Confederate ship to Union forces, then allowed the man’s penniless wife to live there when she was widowed.

Or is the greatest man who fought for education for all and to maintain the gains made by African Americans during the Civil War the man most worth publicly remembering? Smalls would see a new constitution in 1895 removing the right to vote for African Americans. He was fired from his job as a federal customs collector in 1913, when then-President Woodrow Wilson purged large numbers of black men from government jobs.

Or would it be better to combine them all somehow? That’s how Republican Rep. Chip Campsen, an occasional boat pilot, sees honoring one of his favorite South Carolinians.

“The best way to sum up the life of Robert Smalls is that he was a freedom fighter as a slave, as a pilot and as a statesman,” Campsen said.

Location, location, location

Then there is the matter of location. Although South Carolina has a monument with several panels honoring the struggle of African Americans from their journey on slave ships to the present day, it does not honor a black man or woman among the two dozen monuments scattered around the Statehouse.

At least six different monuments honor people like Dr. J. Marion Sims, who some consider the father of modern gynecology but who founded her research by operating without anesthesia on enslaved women and girls. There are several honored Confederates who fought to protect slavery in the state that started the Civil War, and a marble copy of the Articles of Secession hangs in the lobby between their House and Senate chambers.

The dubious list includes “Pitchfork” Ben Tillman, a US governor and senator who bragged about how he led mobs of whites who killed black men trying to vote during the 1876 election that led to the end of Reconstruction, the return of all whites. government and the collapse of everything Smalls had worked for. None of this is on the plaque on Tillman’s statue.

Some supporters have suggested that Smalls’ statue could be nearby and be taller and more prominent than Tillman’s to give Smalls a 130-year triumph.

Once the design and location are determined, organizers hope raising money will be easier with a concept in mind.

“We have to get the narrative right,” said Senate Republican Majority Leader Shane Massey. “This is going to tell a story. I think it’s important that they tell it the right way to honor him and to honor South Carolina. I think it’s great.”

The monumental life of Robert Smalls

Robert Smalls was born in 1839 in Beaufort and died in 1915 in his hometown, a free but somewhat forgotten man who lived a life unimaginable for a woman with her child born into slavery. Fans now have the chance to make sure it never fades into obscurity.

“Robert Smalls is writing a new future for this county that at the moment no one can see is happening,” Chris Barr, chief of interpretation for the Reconstruction Era National Historic Park in Beaufort, said while next to Smalls’ bust near his grave in his hometown.

Driving a Confederate ship to freedom is the most remarkable thing about this extraordinary life, Barr said.

“If you’re an enslaved person working on one of those ships around Charleston Harbor like Robert Smalls, you’ve got the tools, you’ve got the talent, you’ve got the boat and you know how to drive it,” Barr said, “And you can see literally floating freedom in the form of the US Navy just a few miles offshore. All you need is a chance.”