Latest / Who Did What Now With Katie Charlwood / 180. Robert Smalls Vs the Confederacy

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180. Robert Smalls Vs the Confederacy · Who Did What Now With Katie Charlwood

• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Hello, delicious friends, and welcome to Who Did What Now?
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: The history podcast that is not your history class with me,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: your host, Katie Charlewood, history Harlotte and reader of books. Now,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: I have nothing against January. January is a mighty fine month,
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: no harm to her. You know, it's grand. However, this
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: one just seemed to go on forever. It was like
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: we were stuck and and a robberius of despair, like
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: bad things kept happening consecutively, one after another in a row.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: And yeah, we're We're finally in February, and it's Black
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: History Month over in the US. And I thought, you
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: know what, since I've started doing things as a series
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: like I've been doing like a month long series on
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: the podcast, I thought, you know what, let's cover Black
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: History Month. It'll be a barely reasonable thing to do.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: And yeah, yeah, however, people are already starting to have
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: conniption about it. And I thought, I generally thought if
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: anyone was going to have an issue with me talking
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: about black history is because I am the whitest person
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: you've ever seen. I am whiter than Taylor Swift dancing.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: I am whiter than a mayonnaise sandwich on wonderbread. You know,
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: I'm so white, I glow in the dark. Okay, I'm
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: a very white person. Oh yeah. And so I thought,
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: if anyone's going to have an issue, it's going to
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: be about that, right, and like, here's black history, talk
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: to you by a white woman, like and I thought
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: if that was going to be the issue, that was
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  Speaker 1: going to be a fair point, you know, but that
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  Speaker 1: was going to be it. I didn't think that the
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: issue was going to be me talking about black history
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: during Black History Month and the topic being black history.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: Like I thought, you know, start on page one, right,
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  Speaker 1: So the reason that there were so many black people
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  Speaker 1: in America right now is because of the slave trade.
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  Speaker 1: Like that, that's a fact. We all know that. That's
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  Speaker 1: page one, you know. That is the very start. That
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: is actually before anything on like modern American history in
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: the UK when you study it, because they started eighteen seventy,
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: you know, so it's eighteen seventy to nineteen seventy like that,
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: that's one of the core modules and so like this
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: is before that, but we all learn it anyway, because
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: like you have to know context, because history doesn't exist
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  Speaker 1: in a vacuum. And so I was like Okay, great,
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  Speaker 1: I'll just start. I'll start here. This is a very
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: basic point. You know, we'll all start from here. This
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: is very normal. No one's going to be up in
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: arms about it, because this is a you know, I
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  Speaker 1: historically agreed upon in fact, like we all know, this
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  Speaker 1: is what happened. And yet people seem to be mad
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  Speaker 1: that I'm talking about the Transatlantic slave trade and not
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: every single other slave trade that happened in all of history.
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  Speaker 1: But I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, Hey, Katie,
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: quit here, Gibbil jabbel in fact me and fact you.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: I will, But first we have got to get our
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: source on Be Free or Die, The Amazing story of
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: Robert Small's escape from slavery to Union hero by Kate Lineberry.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: Robert Smalls from slave to war hero, entrepreneur and Congressman
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: by Tim White. Yearning to Breathe Free Robert Smalls of
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  Speaker 1: South Carolina and his Families by Andrew Billingsley. Black Trustonians,
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: A Social History eighteen twenty two to eighteen five by
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: Bernard A. Powers Junior. From Slavery to public Service Robert
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: Smalls eighteen thirty nine to nineteen fifteen by Oconn Edit Uya,
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: Black Congressman in Reconstruction, Historiography by John Hosmer and Joseph Feinman,
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: Captain of the Planter, The Story of Robert Smalls by
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: Dorothy Sterling, And of course we have our old favorites,
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: History dot com and biography dot Com now is also
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: in comfortably good. Then let's begin now. Before we get
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: into this, I just want to say that I don't
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: need another Spider Man rebook. I don't need another Batman film.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: Like I've seen those stories. They're fine, they're also fictional.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: What I'm saying is I also don't need another Princess
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: Diana movie and or TV show. I'm just saying that
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: I could very well do with, you know, a movie
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: or mini series about Robert Smalls, because six seasons in
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: a movie come on like something something, Because this this
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: is a hell of a guy, and it's got action,
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: it's got adventure, it's got adversity, it has like politics,
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: it's everything. Okay, it has everything, But okay, let's get
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: into it. Let's get into the story of Robert Smalls.
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  Speaker 1: Robert Smalls was born on the fifth of April eighteen
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: thirty nine to an enslaved woman Lydia Polite on the
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: Ashtel Plantation on Ladies Island, Beaufort, South Carolina. Now not
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: to be confused with Beaufort, North Carolina. Those are different places.
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: Even though they're spelled the same, they are pronounced differently.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: If I'm wrong, you can blame the American who told
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: me that. So this is in South Carolina. We're in
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: eighteen thirty nine. Chattel slavery still very much existed, and
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: so because his mother was enslaved when he was born,
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: so was Robert. Lydia Polite was around forty two forty three,
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: and she would have been referred to as a house slave. Oh,
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: I have so many horrible words to say in this episode.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: I'm going to formally apologize now for all of the
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: shitty terms that I have to say throughout. So house
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: slaves they typically had a better life than say, field slaves. Fuck.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: I just realized something. I realized why they're called house elves.
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: And oh, fuck you, JK, fuck you JK, sorry, not sorry,
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: actually ware or waiter, I did not order this swerve
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: in turf anywhow So being a field slave, being an
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: enslaved person who worked out in the fields, I mean
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: this was grueling, hard labor. This was first thing in
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: the morning, last thing at night, till your hands were bleeding.
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  Speaker 1: If you didn't reach the imaginary target that someone set
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  Speaker 1: in their head for you, you're getting whipped. You're getting beaten,
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  Speaker 1: like you were very easily abused, and there was no
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: not retort, but there was no reaction to that, there
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: was no comeuppance, Like you couldn't respond to it, you
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: couldn't react, you could just suffer. Back in my first
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: year of college, sidebar, I remember my professor just taking
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: just one class to cover all of the implements, instruments,
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: and devices that were specifically designed and utilized in the
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: abuse and torture of enslaved people. Like it's recorded, we
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: have documents and sketches and descriptions and evidence. We have
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: all of it, or not even all of it. There's
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: probably some stuff we still lost to history because that's
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: what happens. But when you think that such a thing
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  Speaker 1: is designed specifically for cruelty just because you don't see
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  Speaker 1: a person as a human, like, it's wild and like
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  Speaker 1: I'm the first person to point out if you know
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  Speaker 1: a torture device, or you know an instrument or tool
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: of some kind is fake, right, because I went I
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: was a dark kid, okay, I was obsessed with the
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: macabre and things like that. And I've been to I
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: don't know how many torture museums and things like that
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: over the years, and I've spent a lot of time
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: debunking things. And that's why things like this stick in
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: my head, because this stuff's real. But anyway, field slaves
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: out toiling in the fields, hence the name, and then
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: house slaves still by and a bit slightly better off
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: because they would work in the household, so they would
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: do your basic household chores. I say basic household chores
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: as if houses back there and weren't large, and also
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: very dirty because if people are coming in from outside,
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  Speaker 1: like there's going to be dust, there's gonna be people
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  Speaker 1: who just naturally expect you to clean up after them
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  Speaker 1: all the time. So you're doing everything from you know, cleaning,
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  Speaker 1: setting lighting fires, You're going to be washing floors, windows, walls,
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  Speaker 1: mending clothes, cooking food, serving, you know, you're doing everything,
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  Speaker 1: and so being enslaved and in the home like again
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  Speaker 1: slightly better off, but you know you're still owned by
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  Speaker 1: another person and deemed their property. And also are subject
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  Speaker 1: to very specific variations of abuse because you're in close proximity.
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  Speaker 1: Which brings me to Robert Small's father. How you may
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: have noticed, I have not yet mentioned that is because
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: we do not have a definitive answer as to who
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  Speaker 1: that was. However, it is generally believed that Lydia Polite's owner,
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: Henry McKee, was Robert's father. Now, plantation owners assaulting and
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: raping the black women that they owned is not a
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  Speaker 1: new concept, looking at you, Thomas Jefferson. Henry McKee owned
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  Speaker 1: the Asteal plantation, which was at least four hundred and
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: twenty acres at that time, and the primary crop you're
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: going to be shocked at this was Sea Island cotton.
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  Speaker 1: So there's a little cabin at the house and it's
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: basically getting a plaque on it, and it's like Robert
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: Smalls born here, except he wasn't born in that cabin
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: because I think previously a bunch of the cabins had
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: just like burned down. There was a fire, and the
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: current cabin is like where the old kitchen used to be,
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  Speaker 1: So it's like it's the same general location, but that
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  Speaker 1: particular cabin that he was born and no longers exists,
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  Speaker 1: but yes, he was in fact born in a cabin,
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  Speaker 1: just again not that one specifically. So the thing about
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  Speaker 1: Robert Small's is he was definitely mixed race. According to
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  Speaker 1: contemporary sources, he had and I quote, distinct mulatto features.
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  Speaker 1: If you happen to be a European person who has
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: never heard this term, unfortunately, I'm going to have to
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: explain it to you now. Because apparently racism wasn't quite
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: bad enough, we have to add colorism into the mix.
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  Speaker 1: So a pri racial person, specifically someone who was of
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  Speaker 1: both sub Saharan African and white European descent. Typically at
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  Speaker 1: this time, it would mean that you had one black
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  Speaker 1: parent and one white parent and you were mulatto. And
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: if you're thinking this couldn't possibly get worse, well no,
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  Speaker 1: it absolutely could. So this is a racial classification which
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: then gets further refined. I guess you have the term
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  Speaker 1: quadroon but referred to people who were thought to be
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  Speaker 1: one quarter of suba Saharan African descent and three quarters
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  Speaker 1: European descent. Then of course you have Octooran. You can
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: really say that they're working really hard to come up
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  Speaker 1: with these names, which is like one eighth sub Saharan
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  Speaker 1: African descent and seven eighths European descent, and then you
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  Speaker 1: have Griff Griffe, which was for people who were assumed
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  Speaker 1: to be one quarter European descent and three quarters sub
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  Speaker 1: Saharan African descent. So this will actually all lead into
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: that whole idea of the one drop rule. Like, according
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: to the one drop rule, me, the whitest person you
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: have ever seen would be deemed black. And actually, during
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: Jim Crow era in the segregated South, because of that
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: one drop rule, I would actually be referred to as mulatto,
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: which is wild when you think about it, because it's
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: I'm so white. I think oregano was spicy. Actually, sidebar,
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: there was a whole thing on TikTok a few years ago,
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: but like, how white are you? And I ate an
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: entire dessert spoin of mayonnaise for the joke. I'm not
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: sure it was worth it, because I deeply regretted that decision,
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: But I actually actually like spicy food. I mean, or
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: what I deem to be spicyfood. So Robert Small's mother Lydia.
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  Speaker 1: She was an enslaved servant in this household in Henry
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  Speaker 1: McKay's household. And so Robert grows up in this household
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  Speaker 1: on Princess Street. So he's growing up in this house
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  Speaker 1: and he was generally favored by Henry McKey. Now he
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: grows up alongside mckey's children, right, and he knows them
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  Speaker 1: and they're okay. Now there's this whole thing about them
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  Speaker 1: being friends, like them being like okay with each other.
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  Speaker 1: And it's tough, I think, to say that when he
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: is deemed to not be a person in this culture, right,
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: in this society, he's not a human being, like from
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: their perspective, like because he can be owned like property,
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: you know, and so but he has a slightly better life,
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: and he's favored by Henry McKee, probably because it's his
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: offspring more than say workers in the field. And so
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: like Lydia actually grew up like in the fields, like
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: that's what she did before she became an enslaved servant
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: in the household. And so she got like worried, like
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: she was genuinely worried that growing up that because he
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: had this fairly comfortable like for his position, like a
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: fairly comfortable like childhood, that he would not be aware
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: of the severity of the world in which she lived,
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: and so she had him brought out and had him
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: work in the fields to like understand that kind of labor,
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: to understand that kind of treatment that is received by them,
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: and he would be forced to watch whippings happen, you know,
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: so that he had understanding of the powerate play and
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: the authority that was over him and the life outside
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: this bubble that he was growing up in, which was
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: you know, fairly comfortable for the one he was living in.
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: And as a child, like they would go down to
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: the docks because like the water's right there, right, So
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: this plantation, that Ashteal plantation, it's at this it's at
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: Lucky Point Creek, which is a branch of the Kussou River,
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: So like there's water all around. And then of course
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: you have the docks, so you have like steamships passing,
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: and like they like the water. Kids, kids fucking love water.
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: Do you ever see kids in a puddle? Kids love
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: a puddle? You know what? You know, what if we
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: were all wearing wellies, welly boots, Wellington's for those of
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: you who don't know, they're like a rubber boot. You
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: wear them as children in the rain or farmers in
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: a muddy field, Like they're a rubber boot and so
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: if we had them, like your life would be okay,
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: Like jumping in a puddle is fun, right, you know what,
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: Go jump in a fucking puddle. Okay, So like kids
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: love water, right, it's a thing. But yeah, he's having
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: this sort of again fairly comfortable life. So like at
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: one point she takes him to a slave auction, like
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: just to make it clear and to hammer home like
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: this is the reality of the situation. And also this
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: is an era like when you go from being a
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: child to being an adult, like there's no adolescence as
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: no teenage yor like that doesn't really count. You are
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: child and then you are adult. So basically twelve thirteen,
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: you know when you're getting close to that puberty straight stage,
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: like you're like you're a man, now do man work?
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: Like that was very much a thing. And so when
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: he's twelve, Lydia manages to convince Henry McKey to send
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: Robert to Charleston to learn a trade because like she
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: didn't want him to become another enslaved person toiling in
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: a field, and so she wanted to give him a
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: skill to like protect him from that. And so in
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: eighteen fifty one, Henry McKay sends Robert Smalls to Charleston,
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: where McKee has like other homes, and so he lives
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: there and he ends up working as a busboy in
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: a hotel and he earns a grand total of five
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: dollars a week, which is approximately two hundred and ten
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: dollars and forty seven cents today. Now it should be
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: known that the money he earns right, the money he
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: is earning as his job as a busboy, he doesn't
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: get to keep right because remember he is an enslaved person.
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: He doesn't have the right to money, and so his
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: wage is his money just goes sent right back to
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: Henry McKee. After this, he gets other jobs, one of
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: which is a lamp lighter, So street lamps you would
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: actually have to light them at night, so you'd go
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: around and you'd light the street lamps, and so he
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: would do that, and then he got a job as
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: a knocker upper. Right, this is a real thing. This
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: is one of my favorite jobs from history. Actually, a
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: knocker upper would just go around and tap on windows
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: to wake people up. In the era before alarm clocks,
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: you would have a knocker rupper come around and just
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: be like tap tap tap, and like he manages to
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: negotiate with his owner, Henry McKee, so that he can
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: actually keep, you know, a little bit of the money
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: that he earns from the jobs that he is doing.
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: So he's making sixteen dollars a week, which is approximately
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: six hundred and seventeen dollars and forty four cents, but
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: he manages to negotiate with Henry McKee that he can
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: keep one dollar of that, which is about thirty eight
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: dollars and fifty nine cents. So he's a teenager and
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: he's getting jobs on like the docks and on the ships.
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: So he's doing things like longshoreman, a rigor, he's a
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: sail maker, and he just keeps toiling away until he
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: gets to become a whealsman. Now, if he were a
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: white man, then he would have gained the title of
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: helmsman or pilot, but because he was a black man,
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: the highest he could hope for was wheelman. And as
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: he's doing this, he is becoming incredibly knowledgeable about the
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: local waterways, Like he knows Charleston Harbor like the back
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: of his hand. So he's very comfortable in his position.
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: He's very knowledgeable in his position, and the manner in
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: which he grew up it means that he can talk
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: to like nearly anybody. He can he can hold his
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: own in a conversation, and he was an uncomfortable speaking
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: to different people. Now it's a way bit rare at
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: the time, Like he's basically not saying boo to a ghost.
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: You know, he's chilling out and he's just keeping his
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: nose down and doing his job. But he's seventeen, and
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: the heart wants what it wants. And he meets a
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: hotel maid called Hannah Jones. She's thirty one years old,
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: he's seventeen, and this is a made a Zembra romance.
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: So he just like he's head over heels. And in
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: eighteen fifty six, right, they get married, well, they kind
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: of get married basically because marriage was like it's like
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: a legal thing. You know, it's a contract, and if
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: you are an enslaved person, you legally cannot enter a contract,
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: especially without your owner's permission. So effectively they had to
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: go to their owners and request that they would be
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: allowed to marry. Now it's kind of a thing, it's
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: not legally recognized and all, because you know, they're seeing
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: as property and not people. Just I know, I'm hammering
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: this home and I'm a broken fucking record about it,
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: but you just need to be aware of this. So
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: basically they have to ask for permission. They get married,
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: and they have children. Now, Kinna actually has two daughters
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: of her own. They are twelve and fourteen years old,
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: so they yeah, there's like a three year age difference
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: between her oldest daughter and her husband. Just okay, whatever.
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: Now them being married actually could be very beneficial in
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: the eyes of a slave owner, right because chattel slavery,
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: the whole purpose, like the core of chattel slavery is
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: that you are not only enslaved, but every generation after
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: you was also enslaved. So if you have children, then
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: that's just more property for the slave owner. And so
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: Henry McKay and Samuel Kingman that's Hannah Jones's owner, they
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: agreed to let them marry and also in addition, furthermore
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: allow them to live together as man and wife like
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: away from both slave owners. Like they're not worried and
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: thing's gonna happen because they're like, you're just here and enslaved,
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: and that's just how things are, and they don't change,
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: and you're not going to rock the boat. You're just
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: going to continue existing in this fashion. And also McKee
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: and Kingsman, they're continuing to receive income, right for both
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: of these enslaved people because their businesses that they are
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: working for are sending them money back, so you know,
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: they don't really have to worry about them as such.
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: So they're just kind of like, okay, cool, Like for
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: slave owners, these two are like fairly chill in comparison
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: to quite a lot of them, like at least in
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: this particular scenario. So when he's nineteen and Hannah is
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: thirty three, they have a daughter who they name Elizabeth.
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: And it's at this point that Robert Small starts worrying
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: like it's chattil slavery. He has no rights, his children
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: have no rights, and he is suddenly very aware that
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: he can be separated from his family. And so Robert
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: basically does the math. Now he can't read or write,
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: he's illiterate, but he can do sums, and so he
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: ends up and so he does the only reasonable thing,
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: which is he tries to arrange to purchase them right,
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: So he goes to Kingmen and Kingman who owns Hannah
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: and also Elizabeth by default, like, he offers to sell
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: them to Robert for the lolo price of eight hundred dollars,
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: which in today's money is thirty one thousand, six hundred
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: and twenty one dollars and sixty six cents. So it's
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: fairly steep, and it's deliberately steep, you know, it's meant
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: to be difficult to obtain. Now, this is something I
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: want everyone to consider for a second. So you know,
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: when people bring up the argument of like there were
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: so many black slave owners, typically, like you, when you
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: actually look at who owned who, the owner was typically
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: a black man who had purchased his family. Like that's
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: how that worked. Now, of course, it's always going to
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: be an outliers somewhere, there's going to be an exception
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: to the rule, but typically usually this was how it was. Like,
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: in order to keep them together, they would work, they
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: would raise money, and they would try and buy their
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: freedom and then purchase their family. Like that was sort
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: of the goal, you know, to try and keep them
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: together because they just wanted to keep their family. And
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: Robert he's been saving up like a little a month,
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: but he's not quite near eight hundred dollars yet. So
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: two years later, in eighteen sixty, something happens which changes
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: the course of Robert Small's life. Abraham Lincoln was elected
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: the President of the United States. On the sixth of
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: November eighteen sixty, Abraham Lincoln was elected the sixteenth President
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: of the United States, and he was the very first
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: Republican president. And he won effectively, like because of the
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: North right, there were absolutely zero ballots cast for him
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: in ten out of the fifteen southern states, right, the
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: states that were very much pro slavery. So he ended
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: up getting like was it, thirty nine point eight percent
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: of the total votes, So it was basically like a
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: four a race and he just had the most and
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: that's that's it. So he was elected in November in
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: eighteen sixty and he was due to like be inaugurated
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: and take office in March eighteen sixty one. Now, because
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: of his you know, anti slavery stands, it triggered to
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: like just like a domino effect of secession from from
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: the Union, you know, so effectively the first being and
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: you're going to be shocked by this South Carolina, the
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: very state that Robert Smalls was from, and on the
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: twentieth of December eighteen sixty, South Carolina was the first
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: state to secede. No, I don't know the accent of
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: South Carolina specifically. I'm also not really good at any
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: Southern accent. They're all very cartoonish. But for the sake
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: of buffoonery, and if anyone's interested, here is South Carolina
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: secession declaration, or part of it. Our geographical land has
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: been drawn across the Union, and all those states north
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: of that land have united in the election of a
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: man to the high office of President whose opinions and
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: purposes are hostile to slavery. I think that's a little
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: bit of my folk hornle like horn impression, just kind
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: of like weaseled its way in there. But yeah, I
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: feel like that's pretty much cut and dry. But yeah, Basically,
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: South Carolina was first followed by like Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana,
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: and Texas. Now like six of these states basically declared
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: themselves to be like their own sovereign nation, the Confederate
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: States of America, with Jefferson Davis as the provisional president now,
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: so like basically the border states of the Upper South,
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: so things like Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Arkansas,
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: and Delaware. Like originally they like rejected the Sessionist appeal.
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: Basically Buchanan and Lincoln refused to recognize the Confederacy. And
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: this this triggers the American Civil War. So there's almost
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: going to be someone who's like, oh, no, the Civil
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: War was fought over states rights. Which rights, dear fellow,
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: Which rights specifically? What rights did the states you know
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: that succeeded? What rights specifically did they to combrige with?
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: What were they fighting for? It was the right of
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: slave ownership. Okay, that's the rights. Like that, that's it.
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: Now you can throw together your lost cause analogies and whatever. No, no, no, no, no,
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: it was about slavery, right. It was about the right
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: to own people. Okay, okay, glad we cleared that up.
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: And it teen sixty one the Civil War breaks out,
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: and that same year Robert Smalls and Hannah Jones Smalls
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: welcome Robert Junior into the world. So April twelfth, eighteen
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: sixty one, Civil War. There we go. It's happening, and
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: so Robert Smalls at this point he had been working
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: as a wheelman for the CSS Planter. Now there are
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: a few other enslaved people working on the ship. He
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: is one of them. But he is really really good
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: at his job, and he is very observant, so he
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: already knows the waterways, he already knows all around Charleston
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: or like all the war around that. On top of that,
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: he understands what all of the flag signals are for.
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: And he also watches the schedules of officers and other
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: white seamen. So when the Civil War kicks off, right,
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: there's a fort in Charleston called Fort Sumter, which at
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: the time was occupied by Union soldiers, and so ye know,
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: there's the war's happening, and so the Confederate forces they
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: just fire on this fort, right, and like they just
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: absolutely I'm gonna use the name bombard, they bombarded it, right.
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: And the funny thing about this is like, and it's
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: just very much a situation of rich people being like oblivious.
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: Rich people like they come out to see like the
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: fire ring and what I'm assuming our gunpowder explosions. Because
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: many many rich white Charlestonians they come out to watch.
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: There's spoil and real power technol burshom. That is my
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: fun like an impression. It's really bad. I haven't done
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: it in a long long time. The last time I
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: did it, I was I was in Canada, dear goodness,
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: Oh no, not getting into that. It was back when
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: the whole man versus bear thing was happening, and then
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: it became like a nation versus nation thing. It was
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: just like one thing after another. So, yeah, there's a
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: war going on. There's a civil war going on, and
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: so the Confederacy what they do is they charter they
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: CSS Planter, and so it goes to Fort Sumner. Did
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: I call it Sumpter earlier anyway? And so they start
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: using it to basically transport like supplies, so everything from
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: like ammunition, guns, you know, just those kind of things.
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: And so it was going like in and out of
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: Charleston Harbor. And again he is just like on the ship.
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: He is a wheelman. I was gonna call him a pilot,
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: but like he's not allowed that title because he's enslaved.
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: And so he and a bunch of other enslaved people
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: they are on this ship. They're on the CSS Planter.
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: And they are working on behalf for the rights of
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: a state to continue slavery, like enslaved people are being
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: forced to work on behalf of keeping slavery. It's like
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: handing someone a shovel and expecting them to not only
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: dig their own grave, but the graves of their friends,
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: children and neighbors. Right, That's that's what that is. So now,
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: because obviously there's a waterway, the Union Navy decides what
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: a handy thing to do and just sets up a blockade,
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: which basically stops trade in and out of Charleston. So
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: it's like cutting it off from certain supply roots. And
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: not only this, but like other Southern ports, and so
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: it was basically buggering up the economy of the South.
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: And so you can't earn money, you don't have any profits,
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: and so things are gonna go south for you. And
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: so like they're trying to like break the blockade, they're
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: they use like torpedoes. At one point it is not working.
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: Spoiler alert didn't work, and like by November eighteen sixty one,
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: the Union troops had taken Port Royal, So like Port Royal,
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: South Carolina, which is like sixty miles like south of
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: Charleston now Port Royal, South Carolina, not to be confused
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: with Port Royal, Jamaica, like from our Pirate season. It's
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: a different one. Okay, but you know, name sticks why
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: we have so many newcastles in the world and yet
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: it's sill little old castles. And so because they've taken
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: like these places, a lot of white Southerners they just
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: get the heck at a dodge, they just bolt because
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: they were just like not staying for this. Now they
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: go and they happen to leave behind enslaved people. So
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: what happens is basically a lot of these black people
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: become free. And like why I think March eighteen sixty two,
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: Lydia Polite, Robert Small's mother, she's in Beaufort, and she's free,
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: and she's engaged I think to a cook. But she's
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: engaged and is free. Robert at this point still is not. Meanwhile,
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: he's still serving on the Planter. So the whole purpose
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: of the cess Planter was to like survey the waterways.
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: They were to deliver things like troops, supplies, dispatches, and
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: also lay minds. And so basically he's sailing the planter.
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: He's piloting effectively right through Charleston Harbor. He's going along
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: like the Florida Coasts, Georgia, South Carolina. He's like on
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: all these rivers and so he's getting to know like
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: all of all of the waterways like around the area,
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: and he is learning them very well. And then something
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: interesting happens. So basically April eighteen sixty two, there is
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: this barge and right, and it's been worked on by
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: these enslaved people, and so they're like, you know what,
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: why don't we just go out to the blockade, And
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: so they do, and they go out to the naval
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: blockade to the Union and they're just like, guess we're
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: here now. And it was like a real act of
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: defiance against the South, you know again this Confederacy that
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: these guys had just gone and done that like that
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: these did it. And so it wasn't like the biggest
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: thing in the world, but we was big enough to
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: like sow some seeds. And at this point as well,
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: Robert Small's he's saved up like seven hundred dollars out
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: of the eight hundred that's supposed to be, you know,
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: for the purchase of his wife and daughter, Hannah and
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: Elizabeth and so he's trying to like save up and
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: then but remember he's also had another child at this point,
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: and so obviously the price will have multiplied and he's
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: not going to have this money. He's not going to
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: be able to purchase this, and so he's he's laying
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: some plans. Now, one thing leads to another and one
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: of the other enslaved people on the boat makes a joke.
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: He just floats the idea, you know, that maybe, just
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: maybe they could steal a planter, and Roberts like, oh,
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: that's not a joke, and then basically side eyes everybody
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: just to see like who's on board, and most of
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: the enslaved people shocker, yeah, they're in on it. One isn't,
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: just because he is a product of his environment, but
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: the rest are very much into this, and so they
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: start meeting in Robert's house for a plan. Now here's
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: the thing as well, these are enslaved people. They have
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: no rights, and so they are well aware that by
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: attempting this, if they are caught, if they fail in
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: any way, they're dead right. Not only will they be executed,
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: but they will probably be made an example of, like
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: them and their children. And so they have to be
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: very very careful and very very serious about what they're
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: going to do next. And they are looking at this
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: world they're living in and that they are fighting to
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: uphold the very chains that are you know, metaphorically and
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: sometimes very literally like keeping them in place. And so
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: Robert Small says, fuck this for a game of soldiers,
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: and he decides to take his life in his hands.
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: So he's a wheelman, he's piloting the plant, and he's
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: away from a fortnight and then returns with four, as
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: my brother would say, big motherfucking guns. And so these
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: are being dismantled like from forts and Charleston, and so
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: there's like these big motherfucking guns. And then you also
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: have like more guns and about two hundred pounds of ammunition.
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: So this is what says. Planta is stocked up with
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: all this firepower and is moored at the wharf at
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: the headquarters of Charleston's direct commander, Brigadier General Roswell s Ripley,
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: in a crazy random happenstance, was also in charge of
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: the barge that was stolen, and so that evening twenty
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: guards were posted at the wharf, like in a couple
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: were just like like just a wee bit away from
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: the boat that they were fairly close. And it is
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: scheduled to head out in the morning. And because of
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: you know, the barge being stolen previously, three white officers
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: were supposed to stay on board the ship overnight, Samuel Piccher,
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: Samuel Hancock, and Charles Raley. Now these fellas they disembarked,
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: leaving Smalls and the crew on board, as was their custom, right,
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: they were just going into town like they always did,
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: and so they left Robert and the other enslaved crew
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: on board. So it's the night of the twelfth of May,
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: and these guys have just scarpled. They've just gone off
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: to have some booze in a tavern probably, and so
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: Robert Smalls decides this is it, and so he gets
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: a message out to Hannah and a few other people
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: on the shore. And so Robert and the six other
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: enslaved crew they're on the planter, you know, I mean,
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: apart from that one guy they didn't trust actually, and
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: so in the early hours of the thirteenth of May
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: eighteen sixty two, he puts on a captain hat and
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: so they go right like as they're planning this like
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: they know it's go bigger go home, and go home
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: doesn't mean go home. Go home means go to the
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: bottom of the bay. Because they've decided that if they
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: get caught, if their plan fails, they're just going to
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: blow up the boat with them on it, because that
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: is a better option than what they will face on
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: the other side if they are caught. So yeah, Robert
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: ends up breaking into the captain's cabin. He's caught the
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: captain's jacket, his hat, he's got all these guns, and
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: so it's three thirty in the morning. Off they sail,
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: and the guards who are actually stationed on the wharf,
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: like they don't do anything because they know it's expected
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: that this is going to leave in the morning, right
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: they haven't been told when in the morning, if it's
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: three thirty or five am. They just know it's going.
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: And it leaves. There's a captain with hat on in
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: the dusk like the shapes there, and so of it goes.
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: They make their way to another dock where they pick
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: up Small's wife, Hannah, and their children, Elizabeth and Robert Junior.
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: They also collect four other women and then another child
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: as well, So basically they get all these people on
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: the boat, and when they're there, they explain the plan
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: to the women, right, and they're like, listen, if we
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: get caught, we're going down. Like they didn't understand quite
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: how big the war was, but they understood enough, you know,
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: and so they decided that it was best to tell
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: them this plan. And naturally everybody freaked the fuck out
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: because nobody wants to be exploded. They're going to be exploded.
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: Nobody wants to be exploded, and so they end up
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: like it takes but an hour of everyone to calm
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: the fuck down, and then many women are just like
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: locks into cabins and they're like, listen, if you make
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: a loud noise, we're going to have to shoot you.
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: Which I mean, we don't know if they would or
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: not have the time, but there is every possibility that
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: they could have, and there's every possibility that this was
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: just a tactic to keep people quiet so that they
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: could you know, make it through their plan. No, they
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: didn't lock them in cabins. It was staterooms, which I
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: think is slightly nicer than cabins, I guess. So the
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: planter leaves this dock and it has to pass five checkpoints,
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: and each one of these checkpoints has gun batteries, right,
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: so basically you have to get like fairly close to
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: the shore and then do these like signals, flag signals.
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: Right there are na to go flag signals, and luckily
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: Robert knows them because he learned them because he paid attention.
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: And obviously, as there's they need to get like close
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: enough but not too close because they need to show,
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: you know, that they're safe, but they don't want to
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: give away that they've you know, stolen a ship. Luckily,
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: it's still kind of like dusky, it's still not entirely light,
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: so there's a lot they can get away with and
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: like that sort of like early morning time. And so
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: they're doing all of the flag signaling and they get
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: past all of the checkpoints. Now at this point, this
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: sun has risen, and you know, it's going to be
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: pretty obvious that something is awry because the Confederate semen
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: are going to go to the dock and see that
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: the boat isn't there, and it's going to become clear
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: that the reason the boat isn't there is because someone
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: has taken it. So they're going to be out looking
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: for this and so they really really need to get going,
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: and so they are having to go like pick up speed, right,
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: they really got to get those knots in, and so
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: they have to just really power towards the Union blockade.
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: So they have to go for it, which is you know,
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: like good speed wise, but bad visually because this is
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: a Confederate ship speeding towards a Union blockade. So it's
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: kind of like a very delicate balance. And so as
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: they get closer, right, so they're getting towards the the
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: USS Onward, right, they're just like they're like raising the
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: alarm and they think it's like a rebel Raman ship
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: because of course it is fucking speeding towards them, so
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: they're like shit, you know. And so the USS Onward
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: it comes around and it's been brought around to fire
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: on csays planter, and like luckily they're paying off attention
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: like on the planter, and so they pull down the
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: Confederate flag and they raise up like not a white
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: flag because they don't have one of those, but a
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: bed sheet. They have a white bed sheet and that's
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: what they have pulled up to just be like hey,
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: not Confederacy. So the Union ships they see this big
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: white bed sheet and realize that, you know, what is
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: just a general symbol of truce or peace at war.
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: Like it's the kind of thing of like, don't shoot
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: me innocent, you know, we have that, like that is
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: a generally recognized symbol. So they don't shoot on the ship.
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: And as the Planter approaches, Robert yells out, good morning, sir,
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: I've brought you some of the old United States guns,
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: sir that before Fort Sumter, sir. After which the other
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: crew and just like cheer because yeah, they're like, hey,
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: we're here now, huzza. And so basically they bring up,
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: you know, the women and children who were below deck,
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: and they come up and yeah, so Robert chats to
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: the captain of the onward, they raise the American flag.
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: All is well. Meanwhile, back in Charleston, Brenadier General Ripley
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: wakes up to discover that the ship is missing, and
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: it doesn't take very long to notice that the Planter
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: is read over there next to the ships in the blockade. Now,
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: of course, rumor spread, right, and the rumor is that
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: like white Union spies like chartered the ship, because you know,
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: of course it had to be them. And anyway, this
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: news gets all the way to Richmond, Virginia, where you've
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: got these Confederate leaders who are informed of this very
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: unpleasant situation for them, and they are very very annoyed
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: about this because the Planter like strategically was a very
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: useful ship for the Union because it's a water transport
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: ship and it's for shallow water, Like it is very
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: convenient going around all of these rivers in bays and
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: along the coastal lines where that water is you know,
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: not as deep, and so it is a very very
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: useful ship to have access to which the Union now
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: have and the Confederacy do not. And it's also like
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: doubly stinging when they realized that it was enslaved people
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: who commandeered the vessel, Like that's gonna that's gonna be
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: a punch to the gut. Now, the three white officers, Sam,
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: Sam and Chuck, they are severely punished. Like all of
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: the papers at the time are just rab rab rabble.
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: They're just full of rage. And just like they call
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: the fact that the white officers like left the boat,
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: they're like they call it disgusting treachery. One of them
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: calls it one of the most shameful events of this
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: or any other war. I think you might be using
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: hyperabole there. I think you might be exaggerating somewhat in
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: this situation. But yeah, they are basically just hugely embarrassed
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: that this happened. And of course they're just like ah
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: punish ah. But yeah, they're they're arrested in jailed. Those
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: officers are arrested and jailed. Meanwhile, over in the Union,
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: Robert Smalls is telling the story to the local commodore,
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: and the local commodore is telling the story to the
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: captain of the Onward and tells him to submit a
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: claim for the Black crew. Effectively, anytime a ship or
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: a boat was captured by the Union, it would then
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: be auctioned off and half of the money went to
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: the Union, and so like the other half went to
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: the crew that captured the ship. Effectively, what they're saying
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: here is that the onwarld didn't capture the ship, the
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: Black crew did. Yeah. Effectively is like, hey give money
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: to this crew effectively, which is like good because they
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: didn't have much if anything. So they end up sending
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: like this civilian that they'd accidentally like captured when they
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: captured the ship, So they send the Civilian Act to
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: Charleston with a note and it's basically along the lines of, oh,
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: it's really it's really embarrassing to like take this off
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: of a fellow countryman, but like, oh dear, And this
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: doesn't really help them though, because the three officers, Sam,
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: Sam and Chuck, they are all like court martialed and
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: charged with disobedience of orders and neglect of duty. Two
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: of them are convicted and then one of them isn't.
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: So this happens, but then a general steps in and
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: he goes, well, they weren't given clear orders, so it's
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: not their fault that they were off the ship because
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: you never actually told them to specifically stay on the ship.
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: And now that they don't have those guys to blame,
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: they're blaming the owner of the planter. So yeah, basically,
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: the citizens are like super angry that, you know, a
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: bunch of enslave people stole the ship, and they'll looking
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: for someone to blame. But they're not the only ones
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: who are angry. Remember Hannah Jones or Hannah Jones Smalls
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: and her daughter and you know her children with Robert,
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: like they were all still owned by Samuel Kingman right,
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: and so he ends up filing a claim for loss
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: of property with the State of South Carolina. So like,
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: in this claim he says that Hannah was worth eight
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: hundred dollars, that Clara was worth one thousand dollars, which
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: is like, okay, but you were gonna sell Hannah and
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: Elizabeth to Robert for eight hundred dollars, which honestly feels
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: like a buy one, get one free in this situation.
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: So like Elizabeth like as a child, she's worth like
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: three hundred dollars, and Robert Junior, because he's like baby
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: slash in, he's one hundred and fifty dollars. So he's
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: put this big claim in for them, and he's putting
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: this claim into the government because as far as he's concerned,
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: this is their cockup and he deserves to be compensated.
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: On the other hand, Henry McKee, like he's not looking
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: for compensation, so he isn't doing that, and he's like
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: lost a bunch of shit at this point. So he's
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: lost his property. He's lost his land, and by property,
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: I'm in his home, I meant like physical structures. He's
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: also lost the enslaved people that he had and on
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: top of this, right two of his children passed away
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: from scarlet fever, you know, so not really the best
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: of times for him, but he did also own people. Meanwhile,
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: the USS Planter and the newly freed Robert Smalls is
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: very useful to the Union. Indeed, so the CSS Planter
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: is a very useful transport ship, especially around those like
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: bays and rivers. On top of that, you have Robert
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: Small's who knows all of the flag signals for the Confederacy,
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: and like there's no guarantee that the Confederacy would assume
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: that Robert had learned these, nor had the crew. Like
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: it's just something for a lot of people they just
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: wouldn't have considered. And so they have this just like
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: extra card in the deck. On top of this, the
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: Union discover thanks to the information from these men, that
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: the Confederates had abandoned an island which was like in
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: a very very important location in Charleston Harbor, and so
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: they're just like taking it in. Robert Small's he is
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: like big news at this point because he's it's very
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: much a kick in the teeth to the Confederacy. Like
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: former enslaved person steals a ship for his freedom and
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: joined the Union. And so like the ship gets sold
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: and he earns like he's given like fifteen hundred dollars, right,
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: and then you have the other crewmen, they get like
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: four hundred and fifty dollars each, and then like two
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: of the sort of like women who weren't married, they
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: got one hundred dollars each. Now, the wives didn't earn
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: or weren't provided any extra money for the situation because
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: it was assumed that they would just share what their
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: husband's ad. That's just how things were listen, one injustice
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: at a time. Okay, I would like to state that
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: like they were definitely like underpaid, Like they were definitely
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: given less money than they should have been from this
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: auction of the ship. They got something, but it was
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: definitely less than what they should have got, and I
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: think it's probably just because of who they were. So yeah,
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: civil war is still going on. And Roberts again when
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: he was wilman of the Planter, like one of the
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: things they did was lay minds in Charleston, and so
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: that's what he's doing. He's helping remove underwater minds in
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: the Charleston Harbor. And so he's doing this and he's
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: making about forty dollars a month, which is like pretty
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: good at this time because like most people were making
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: like thirteen dollars and he's so he's not doing too badly.
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: So he's doing this work for the Union Army and
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: he is also being very vocal about abolition and so
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: become he's become this prominent voice. Like he's invited up
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: to New York to speak, and he's sort of like
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: associated with the Navy, but he's not part of the
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: Navy because in order to be like part of the Navy,
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: you have to be literate, and he wasn't. So he
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: goes to speak or he's invited to speak, I should say,
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: up in New York, and Admiral DuPont He's just like,
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: don't do that because like Pt. Barnum, that asshole who
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: we will definitely be covering at some point, right, Pet Barnum,
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: you know that asshole who we will definitely be talking
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: about at some point. Yeah, So he had a habit
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: of exploiting people for profit, and the Admiral was worried
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: that he would do that to hit right, that he
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: would do it to Robert Small's because like just the
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: year before, there was a former slave who had escaped, right,
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: William Tillman, who had killed three people with an axe
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: and escaped right for freedom. And so petty Barnham like
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: takes him and puts him on display right with the axe.
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: And Admiral DuPont didn't want this happening to Robert Smalls,
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: and so he just like kept him working on the ships.
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: So he keeps him working, right, And then Hannah and
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: Elizabeth and Robert Junior they go back to live in Beaufort.
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: So in Beaufort and sort of other areas like it,
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: plantations that had been abandoned or captured were being used
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: for newly freed black people right for them to live
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: and work. So they're effectively trying to lie, turn it
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: around and try and make it, like I want to say,
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: less horrible. All the while, Robert's reputation grows, and by
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: August eighteen sixty two, he goes to Washington, d C.
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: To help persuade President Abraham Lincoln to allow black men
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: to enlist and fight for the Union. And thanks to this,
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: up to five thousand black men were allowed to join
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: the Union forces. And so Robert continues on working for
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: the Union, Right, So he's now a pilot on several
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: Union ships. But he's a civilian, right, He's not a
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: member of the navy because again he's not literate, right,
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: So he's as a pilot. He sayes like seventeen major battles, right,
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: during one of which, so, yeah, there's a Confederate ship
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 1: and it is firing on them, and the captain of
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: this ship, who is absolutely cacking it, right, he ends
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: up hiding in a coal bunker because he's just I
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: don't know, shit scared. And Robert Small's is just again
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: fuck this for again of soldiers because he's not getting
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 1: caught because he knows what's gonna happen to him if
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: he is caught by the Confederacy. And so he mans
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: the wheel and he guides the boat to safety. Right. So,
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: like the quartermaster ends up making Robert captain of the planter, right,
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: And they just do this because like they're like, dude,
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: this other captain was a coward and if it wasn't
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: for him, like we would be gone, our ship would
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: be down. He's just like absolutely not not a chance.
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: And so now Robert is making one hundred and fifty
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: dollars a month, like this is good, right, Like the
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: average black soldier at this time was making thirteen dollars
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 1: a month and he's making one hundred and fifty, so
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: he is doing well. Financially, he's doing well, but personal
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: life things are going to take a turn for the worse.
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: On May eighteen sixty three, Robert Small's junior passed away
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: from smallpox. It's sixteen months old. Smallpox is a horrible
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: disease that can absolutely destroy you. That's why inoculation is important.
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: And vaccinate your fucking kids, Okay, vaccinate your kids because
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: if you don't vaccinate your children's sidebar because you're worried
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: about or some bullshit that has already been discredited. You
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: were saying that you would rather have a dead child
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 1: than an autistic child, Which that's fucked up, right, You
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: are genuinely a terrible person, right, You're a bad human
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: if you believe that, And you shouldn't be listening to me,
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: because if you believe that vaccines are bad, you don't
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: deserve knowledge, okay, because clearly you don't want it AnyWho.
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: In December eighteen sixty three, Hannah and Roberts welcome their
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: third child into the world. Sarah. Sarah Smalls is the
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: first of any of their children who was born free.
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: In eighteen sixty four, the planter is docked. It's sent
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: to Philadelphia for basically an overhaul, so they have to look,
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: you know, check it for or leaks and cracks and
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: you know, just do general ship upkeep right. And so
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: while all this is going on, Robert Smalls decides he's
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: going to learn to read and write. And so he's
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: in Philadelphia and when he's there, he gets on a streetcar.
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: A street car is kind of like a tram. I think, yes,
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: it is a tram, And honestly, trams are great, Like
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: who framed Roger Rabbit was right, trams fantastic. Love a streetcar.
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: And so he gets on the street car and it's
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: raining and there's sort of an outside like part to
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: it and there's an inside part, right, and so the
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: conductor sends him out to the outside part, and he's like,
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: why would I go to the outside part? It's raining.
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 1: And the whole purpose of him being sent out there
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: is because he's a black man, right, and he's expected
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 1: to get out of the way in case white people
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 1: want to be inside the street car. And he was like,
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 1: what is the purpose of me being on the street
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 1: car if I'm gonna get wet anyway, And so he
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 1: gets off and goes out in the rain, and this
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 1: becomes like a massive news story, like it makes headlines.
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 1: And Philadelphia is like already fell of like Quakers and
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: stuff anyway, who not really super into the whole racial
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: injustice situation. And so there's this big like abolitionist push right,
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: and it's like what is what these wrest laws in Philadelphia?
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 1: And so it becomes very much a thing, you know,
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 1: and this is just like showing the seeds of things
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 1: to happen later on. So, yeah, Civil War still raging on,
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 1: and Robert is back captaining the Planter and he just happens,
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: like cherry on the cake, he just happens to be
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: at Charleston when it falls in the war, right, he's there,
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 1: He's helping the Union army and like it is such
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 1: like a sweet deal for him, like he is living it.
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 1: So like he ends up going into Charleston, right, and
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: he goes there with General Saxton. They go in, there's
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 1: just like a bunch of people cheering. A bunch of
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 1: black people are there and they're like you're now free.
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 1: Everything's amazing. And when he's there, like proper, proper, like
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: full circle moment, he sees Ferguson, the Scottish dude who
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 1: used to own the Planter, and he goes up to
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: him like he pushes through the crowd. He brings General
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 1: Saxon with him and he introduces him to him, and
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 1: it's just like, yeah, buddy, we're equals now. It's just golden.
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: So he's back on home Turfia and Robert discovers that,
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 1: you know, the house that he grew up in, or
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 1: adjacent to Henry McKee's house in Bellefort over there right,
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 1: it is about to be auctioned. So again, like I
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 1: said earlier, Henry McKee he lost everything because like a
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 1: lot of southern plantation owners, and there's this whole thing
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: about property taxes and so that they were just they
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 1: were just uping and leaving. And so Robert Smalls buys
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 1: that house that he was in with his mother. He
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: buys it for six hundred and sixty five dollars. The
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: home where he was enslaved, he now owns as a
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 1: free man. And so Robert and Hannah and their children
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: they're living in this big old house together and you know,
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: they were like hoasting parties and stuff. They're just having
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: you know, a life and a lot of like recently
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: freed people, people they would have known beforehand, like they
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: still know them if they're still in the area, like
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: they're joining, they're coming together and they are celebrating. And
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 1: then and then in April eighteen sixty five, the Confederacy surrendered. Now,
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 1: the Civil War wouldn't fully end until May, when the
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 1: final battle would happen. But it's eighteen sixty five and
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 1: this is over. Well, the war is over because it's
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: wild though, because the Confederacy lasted four years, like it
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: lasted four years, and people are so pressed about it,
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 1: like the Wild West lasted longer, Like that's a longer
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 1: period of time, Like I think it's like fourteen fifteen
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 1: years or something like that. I'll have to double check,
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 1: but it's like so short, like England has had more
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 1: kings named George than there are years in the Confederacy.
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 1: Reading and Lester's diaries would take you longer than the
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 1: Confederacy ran. So yeah, basically the South falls Civil War
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 1: over and things aren't great for the South at this
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: point because you know war. Now, Robert Smalls is probably
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 1: more decent than a lot of people in the world are,
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 1: because I am an incredibly petty person. Robert Smalls is
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 1: not so the McKee family, right, he decides to be
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 1: very considerate to them. He invites Henry mckey's widow and
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 1: some of her children, who may or may not be
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 1: his half siblings, to come back and live in that home. Right,
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: the difference is it's now his now, Like they refuse
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 1: to like sit at the same table as him, and
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 1: he's like, that's fine, but continued to live in this
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: house that is mine, and like he continues to be
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: very good to this family, Like he helps like Henry
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: McKee's like son get into the US Naval Academy. And
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 1: he also like helps like one of the mckey's daughters
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: like when she needs money, because like he has it,
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 1: and he's like, let me help you. And like he's
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 1: like generally a good dude. In like eighteen sixty six,
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 1: Robert Small's he's out transporting some Union officers and as
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 1: he's sailing, he notices a ship approaching from the rear
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: and it's coming very very fast, and that ship is
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 1: called the Fanny, Right, the Fanny is owned by one
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 1: John Ferguson. You know, let's just like, uh so in Scotland,
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 1: by the way, fanny means vagina and so and so
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 1: like he's named to ship that. And it's coming right
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 1: at them, okay. So like the Fanny speeds up and
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 1: it's like coming towards them, and then it pulls up
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 1: basically beside them, and it's running like parallel. And the
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 1: whole point, like Robert realizes, because he's not knew it this,
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 1: that the Fanny is trying to get them to like
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 1: hit something, that there's going to be something in the water,
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 1: Like it's trying to force them into an obstacle. And
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 1: so the guy the helm right McNulty, So he is
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 1: like trying to get it to turn poor to basically
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 1: almost like come in front of the planter basically again
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 1: to like push it in the way of some kind
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: of obstacle. And Robert, because he's not one to be
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 1: fucked with, just like fill steam ahead. I know there's
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 1: no steam shut up. Like He's just like let's go.
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 1: And so it speeds up and just absolutely whacks into
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 1: the fanny and like pushes the ship. He's like pushing
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 1: the fanny up the Savannah River for about half a mile, right,
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 1: and like obviously the woman is absolutely pissed at this.
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 1: He's so angry. So the wieman McNulty he like pills
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 1: out a revolver because he's pissed because one, you know,
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 1: he's just been embarrassed too by a black man, and
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 1: so like it's just like doubly troubly word for him.
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 1: He's caught his gun and he's cocked it right at him,
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 1: and then Robert pulls out a double barreled shotgun, which
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: is just absolutely golden okay, And so they're like, okay,
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: let's let's not okay. And so the union officers they
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 1: just like force McNulty to stand down, and he like
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 1: just has to because he's going to die if he doesn't.
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 1: So anyway, the Planter is valued at fifteen thousand dollars
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 1: and goes up for auction. Ferguson tries to buy it back,
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: and he even tries to buy it back with like
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 1: like somebody like buying it for him, and the union
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 1: find out and they're just like no, anyway, it gets sold.
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 1: This rich guy gets it and then he ends up
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 1: giving it back to John Ferguson. And so Robert, he's
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 1: just continuing on with his life, right, he just becomes
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 1: an entrepreneur, he gets into business, right, he buys property
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 1: all around Beaufort, and he co founds the Enterprise Railroad
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 1: Company of Charleston. Like, he becomes like a co owner
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 1: of a store, and he becomes an advocate for free
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 1: public education and starts a school for black children, and
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 1: so like, he ends up starting a newspaper even just
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 1: because he's just he just goes from strength to fucking strength, right,
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 1: And so Robert also helped form the first Republican organization
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 1: in South Carolina. Right, at one point he ends up
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 1: being called the King of Beaufort County. Now, this is
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 1: a different time for Republicans and Democrats for those of
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 1: you who don't know. So, yeah, we should just slip
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 1: into some context. Basically, during the Civil War and the
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 1: late Reconstruction era, the two men political parties, the Republicans
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 1: and the Democrats. They had ideologies that look quite different
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 1: from what people associate with those party names today. So
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 1: in the mid nineteenth century, the Republican Party was newer. Right.
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 1: It was founded in the eighteen fifties specifically to oppose
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 1: the expansion of slavery. Republicans supported the Union, pushed for abolition.
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 1: Back to Reconstruction, and especially the radical Republicans argued that
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 1: the federal government had a responsibility to protect the civil
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 1: and political rights of formally enslaved people. By contrast, the
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 1: Democratic Party was dominant in the South and strongly tied
• 1:16:44
  Speaker 1: to slavery before the war. During Reconstruction, most white Southern
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 1: Democrats opposed black citizenship, voting rights, and federal intervention. Promoting
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 1: states rights as a way to resist racial equality and
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 1: restore white place had to go control. Right the major
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 1: ideological shift in these parties. Right. It didn't happen all
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 1: at once. It was gradual over what nearly a century
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 1: after Reconstruction collapsed in eighteen seventy seven, Right Southern Democrats
• 1:17:18
  Speaker 1: like they basically entrenched white supremacy through Jim Crow laws,
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 1: while Republicans slowly retreated from the civil rights movement. Right.
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 1: The most significant relignment so it happens during the New
• 1:17:32
  Speaker 1: Deal in the thirties, when the Democrats under Franklin D.
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 1: Roosevelt expanded the role of federal government into like economic
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 1: and social policy, which was very attractive in the North,
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 1: especially for black voters. And then like the big break
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 1: came during the civil rights era in like the fifties
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 1: and the sixties because you had like Lyndon B. Johnson
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 1: who was supporting civil rights legislation like JFK as well. Meanwhile,
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 1: many white so they're voters sort of wiggled on over
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 1: to the Republican Party, which like just kept like increasingly
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 1: emphasizing like limited federal government and states rights and so like.
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 1: By the end of the twentieth century, like these parties
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 1: had basically reversed sort of they're both regional and ideological basis,
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 1: Like they just completely switched, which is sort of the
• 1:18:30
  Speaker 1: alignment that we have today. Okay, Cliff notes over. So, yeah,
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 1: at this point, Robert Smalls was a Republican, so he
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 1: was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives then
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 1: to the state Senate in eighteen seventy, right, and then
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 1: in Beaufort. What was happening is African Americans outnumbered white
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 1: people seven to one. Somebody is going to come after
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 1: me for the way I'm pronouncing Beaufort. Like they're like,
• 1:18:58
  Speaker 1: it's Beaufort, it's beautiful. It's something wrong. I'm saying something
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 1: wrong with my mouth. It feels weird to say, which
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 1: means I'm definitely fucking it up somehow. Robert Smalls was
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 1: then elected to Congress as one of the first African
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 1: American members, and he served in the US House for
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 1: five terms, not like in a row, but like all together,
• 1:19:23
  Speaker 1: and that started in eighteen seventy. Now he's he's like
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 1: doing well in life. However, that does not mean he's
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 1: entirely safe, because, yeah, South Carolina, it just so happened
• 1:19:40
  Speaker 1: to have red shirts, right. Red Shirts were basically South
• 1:19:45
  Speaker 1: Carolina's version of the Ku Klux Klan, the ku Klux Klan,
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 1: which was invented by people of Scottish heritage, for which
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 1: part of my lineage respectfully apologizes for. I'm so sorry.
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 1: Right in fairness, they were a bunch of knob heads
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 1: that were like super Intergreek with holiday, so like, take
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 1: from that what you will. So in eighteen seventy six,
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 1: he's touring South Carolina with the Republican governor, right, and
• 1:20:15
  Speaker 1: there's this rally in Edfield and a former Confederate general
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 1: and Red Shirt leader overruns the rally and basically threatens
• 1:20:26
  Speaker 1: Robert like he's like threatens his life, threatens to kill him,
• 1:20:30
  Speaker 1: so on and so forth. Now all the Republicans totally unharmed,
• 1:20:34
  Speaker 1: but like there was an uneasiness because of how easy
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 1: it was for the red Shirts to move through the
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 1: town and get that clothes. Right. So in eighteen seventy six,
• 1:20:48
  Speaker 1: Robert Smalls is running against George Tillman, who was racist.
• 1:20:54
  Speaker 1: I don't I don't have any any better description than
• 1:20:58
  Speaker 1: big old racist in Tillman, like he actively actively worked
• 1:21:05
  Speaker 1: to stop Republicans from voting, like they were like red
• 1:21:09
  Speaker 1: shirt attacks. They was trying to spoil botes, like it
• 1:21:12
  Speaker 1: was a whole situation, and like Robert Small's still won, right,
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 1: So basically Tillman's trying to do all this shit to
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 1: disrupt the voting, and Robert Small still wents like tough.
• 1:21:29
  Speaker 1: But of course the Democrats over this era, you know,
• 1:21:32
  Speaker 1: weren't super fond of how democracy had not worked in
• 1:21:36
  Speaker 1: their favor. And so the Democratic State government it had
• 1:21:42
  Speaker 1: charged Robert with taking a five thousand dollars bribe, like
• 1:21:48
  Speaker 1: a bribe that they could not prove or substantiate. They
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 1: were like, oh, he totally took a bribe, And so
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 1: he was convicted and sentenced to three years in prison,
• 1:21:58
  Speaker 1: and so he ends up appear linked to the Supreme court,
• 1:22:01
  Speaker 1: like the state Supreme Court, and so he ends up
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 1: being released after this appeal because they're like, yeah, obviously,
• 1:22:10
  Speaker 1: and then seventy eight, so there's a there is two
• 1:22:13
  Speaker 1: years later, there's another election, and it's not super great
• 1:22:19
  Speaker 1: for black politicians in South Carolina. You've got white supremacists
• 1:22:24
  Speaker 1: who were just dolen out death threats and they're just
• 1:22:30
  Speaker 1: like physically threatening people like all the time, and Telman
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 1: he's just organizing, you know, just widespread fear, intimidation and abuse,
• 1:22:45
  Speaker 1: you know, and basically there's all this threatening that's just
• 1:22:52
  Speaker 1: continuous and it basically results in Tillman winning, so like
• 1:22:58
  Speaker 1: sixty percent of the like he ends up winning, ended
• 1:23:03
  Speaker 1: up with this like things are just like piling up
• 1:23:06
  Speaker 1: against Robert Smalls at this point because he had obviously
• 1:23:11
  Speaker 1: bought in an auction Henry McKay's house, but ain't actually
• 1:23:17
  Speaker 1: been purchased by someone else before that, like before like
• 1:23:20
  Speaker 1: the South fell, and so he was assuming Robert Smalls
• 1:23:23
  Speaker 1: for ownership of the house even though the guy like
• 1:23:29
  Speaker 1: lost it because he didn't pay taxes on it. And
• 1:23:32
  Speaker 1: so he's like the sales invalid and so yeah, like
• 1:23:38
  Speaker 1: this was a common thing that was happening at the time.
• 1:23:40
  Speaker 1: But anyway, it goes all the way to the Supreme Court,
• 1:23:42
  Speaker 1: and the Supreme Court's like, no, Robert Smalls owns this
• 1:23:45
  Speaker 1: house fair and square, which then sets a president right
• 1:23:49
  Speaker 1: all across the South for other black property owners. So
• 1:23:53
  Speaker 1: now Robert Smalls, he's coming up gravy right, things are
• 1:23:56
  Speaker 1: going well again. Basically there's so much like intimidation and
• 1:24:01
  Speaker 1: treating just like going on through all these elections, and
• 1:24:06
  Speaker 1: like the next election, like he's running against George Tillman
• 1:24:10
  Speaker 1: again and their publican Bark Party. It's just absolutely bugered
• 1:24:13
  Speaker 1: up because of just all the shit going on. And
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 1: Smalls he contested the election on the grounds that the
• 1:24:26
  Speaker 1: red Shirts and Tillman had used violence to intimidate voters,
• 1:24:31
  Speaker 1: and Congress agreed and seated Smalls. Right, So the Democrats
• 1:24:40
  Speaker 1: like at Congress, like they didn't get involved in the
• 1:24:43
  Speaker 1: vote because they were like, if we don't show up
• 1:24:45
  Speaker 1: and vote right, it'll be fine because they won't get
• 1:24:48
  Speaker 1: enough votes. Spoiler alert, they did, and so effectively, then
• 1:24:56
  Speaker 1: Jerry Mandarin comes into it, and so effectively they do
• 1:25:03
  Speaker 1: all this to ensure that no more black people can
• 1:25:06
  Speaker 1: be seated. And Robert being Robert like, was just lucked
• 1:25:16
  Speaker 1: out at this point because a candidate died just before
• 1:25:22
  Speaker 1: the eighteen eighty four election, and so Robert Smalls takes
• 1:25:27
  Speaker 1: that seat. The next election, Robert Smalls is up against
• 1:25:31
  Speaker 1: Henry Thompson, who's African American, right, and this is where
• 1:25:36
  Speaker 1: colorism comes into it, because Robert Smalls is is lighter skinned,
• 1:25:42
  Speaker 1: and so there's like the whole point of this campaign
• 1:25:48
  Speaker 1: is that Robert Smalls isn't black enough to be black, right,
• 1:25:51
  Speaker 1: That's where this is coming from. And like once colorism
• 1:25:55
  Speaker 1: entered the chat and basically created this rift, and so
• 1:26:00
  Speaker 1: Democrats won the election because of this. Right, So, like
• 1:26:04
  Speaker 1: by eighteen ninety Robert Smalls is actually remarried because Hannah
• 1:26:10
  Speaker 1: she passes away in eighteen eighty three, like it's a
• 1:26:13
  Speaker 1: very like sudden like quick illness, and she's gone, and
• 1:26:19
  Speaker 1: so he remarries. So he marries Annie Wigg and they
• 1:26:27
  Speaker 1: have a son, William Robert Smalls. Now she passes away
• 1:26:30
  Speaker 1: in like eighteen ninety five. Yes, so yeah, they have
• 1:26:36
  Speaker 1: a son, William Robert Smalls Junior. And he perfectly healthy,
• 1:26:43
  Speaker 1: lives to a ripe old age, and like Robert Smalls,
• 1:26:46
  Speaker 1: he's very very focused on ensuring that all of his
• 1:26:49
  Speaker 1: children get an education, like he's an advocate for free
• 1:26:52
  Speaker 1: education and very much a promoter of public skills. And
• 1:26:58
  Speaker 1: actually a year before he meets or he marries Annie
• 1:27:02
  Speaker 1: like so in eighteen eighty nine, President Benjamin Harrison appoints
• 1:27:08
  Speaker 1: him as the US customs collector for the Port of Beaufort,
• 1:27:13
  Speaker 1: and so he works there un till like eighteen ninety
• 1:27:15
  Speaker 1: two until he is kicked out by the Cleveland administration.
• 1:27:21
  Speaker 1: He is reappointed in eighteen ninety eight by William McKinley right,
• 1:27:27
  Speaker 1: and he basically served in this position until nineteen twelve.
• 1:27:31
  Speaker 1: So he is appointed by President Taft or reappointed by
• 1:27:35
  Speaker 1: President Taft, and then is blocked by two white senators,
• 1:27:44
  Speaker 1: one of which is the brother of George Tillman. Benjamin
• 1:27:49
  Speaker 1: but Yes, Robert Small's born enslaved served five terms in
• 1:27:54
  Speaker 1: the US House of Representatives, fighting for public education, civil rights,
• 1:27:59
  Speaker 1: for equal access to transportation. He remembered that street car
• 1:28:04
  Speaker 1: for protections against racial violence, and when Whig supremacists tried
• 1:28:10
  Speaker 1: to roll back reconstruction, Robert Small stood in their way
• 1:28:14
  Speaker 1: with legislation, speeches, and relentless competence. And he lived long
• 1:28:22
  Speaker 1: enough to see reconstruction rise, fall and be betrayed. He
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 1: lived long enough to be marginalized again by the same
• 1:28:31
  Speaker 1: country he had saved, served and reshaped. But he never
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 1: he never stopped insisting on his own dignity. On the
• 1:28:44
  Speaker 1: twenty third of February nineteen fifteen, Robert Small's passed away
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 1: from complications of diabetes in his home in Beaufort, South Carolina,
• 1:28:57
  Speaker 1: and so ends the store of Robert Smalls. I really
• 1:29:04
  Speaker 1: wish I had more time to delve into, like the
• 1:29:07
  Speaker 1: politics side of things, because like you've got this whole
• 1:29:11
  Speaker 1: chunk of life, like enslaved Civil War politics, Like I'm
• 1:29:19
  Speaker 1: probably gonna go over like the reconstruction era as well,
• 1:29:23
  Speaker 1: because like it's always painted as a failure when really
• 1:29:26
  Speaker 1: it was. It wasn't really given a chance to flourish
• 1:29:30
  Speaker 1: like it was. Anyway, you can't expect him a system
• 1:29:34
  Speaker 1: to survive when you're trying to actively crush it, you know,
• 1:29:38
  Speaker 1: if you don't give it a chance, like it's not
• 1:29:41
  Speaker 1: gonna work. But like Robert Smalls was like one hell
• 1:29:45
  Speaker 1: of a dude, and like He's one of the few
• 1:29:48
  Speaker 1: men in the world that I think that having the
• 1:29:49
  Speaker 1: audacity is just like super good for him, like ten
• 1:29:54
  Speaker 1: out of ten. But yeah, so ends the story of
• 1:30:00
  Speaker 1: Robert Smalls, the man who not only took freedom into
• 1:30:04
  Speaker 1: his own hands, but try to give it to others.
• 1:30:09
  Speaker 1: So if you like my retelling of this story, feel
• 1:30:13
  Speaker 1: free to wait in review of five stars. If you
• 1:30:15
  Speaker 1: don't like it, you can just not see anything at all.
• 1:30:18
  Speaker 1: It's fine, but yeah, catch me on the socials. I
• 1:30:24
  Speaker 1: will try and be a considerate human. I will try,
• 1:30:27
  Speaker 1: but I'm I'm much pettier than Robert Small's ever was.
• 1:30:32
  Speaker 1: I'm a bitch and so and so we are. But
• 1:30:36
  Speaker 1: now it is time for recommendations time. So the Belfast
• 1:30:42
  Speaker 1: show was postponed due to a scheduling issue. It's fine,
• 1:30:46
  Speaker 1: accidents happen. The club were very amazing and apologetic and
• 1:30:51
  Speaker 1: even tried to find me like another venue, but we
• 1:30:53
  Speaker 1: just couldn't find one in that short space of time.
• 1:30:56
  Speaker 1: But turing information will be coming out in the next
• 1:31:00
  Speaker 1: couple of weeks. I'm very excited look forward to seeing
• 1:31:04
  Speaker 1: you all. And of course it is recommendation time for
• 1:31:10
  Speaker 1: reading The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison for listening Black
• 1:31:18
  Speaker 1: Girl Nerds. You know what, I realize I've just kind
• 1:31:21
  Speaker 1: of gone nerdy in this week's recommendations. You know what,
• 1:31:25
  Speaker 1: We're just going to stick to it. For watching Lovecraft Country.
• 1:31:30
  Speaker 1: Watch Lovecraft Country, and that is your recommendation for this week.
• 1:31:37
  Speaker 1: I hope you have a good one. Adios au revoir
• 1:31:40
  Speaker 1: of Wait as Them my friends, Bye bye,