Latest / Ridiculous History / Robert Smalls Stole A Confederate Ship and Sailed to Freedom, Part Two: From Slavery to Congress

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Robert Smalls Stole A Confederate Ship and Sailed to Freedom, Part Two: From Slavery to Congress · Ridiculous History

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: back to the show Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: so much for tuning in. Previously on Ridiculous History, we
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: dove into the story of Robert Small's If you haven't
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: heard part one yet, please please please pause, stop what
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: you're doing now and listen to part one. Perfect. I'm Ben,
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: that's our super producer, Max Williams. Who's this? Who's this guy? Who? Mean?
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: It's all and I don't know, man, let's just dispense
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: with the preamble get right to the heist. So he
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  Speaker 1: knows he's got to have these flags up right, He
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  Speaker 1: raises the Confederate flag, the Palmetto flag. They go towards
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  Speaker 1: the open ocean. They get to the first checkpoint around
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  Speaker 1: a little before three thirty in the morning, place called
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  Speaker 1: Fort Johnson, and this is where the rubber really hits
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  Speaker 1: the road. So he he doesn't know if they'll get caught.
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  Speaker 1: This isn't a scheduled run, right, so he he sounds
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  Speaker 1: a signal on the steam whistle and they just surprise, surprise,
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  Speaker 1: wave him through. So they go deeper into the harbor.
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  Speaker 1: It looks like this plan may actually work and they're
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  Speaker 1: getting to Fort Sumter and he is small as is
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  Speaker 1: playing back in his mind the many times that they
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  Speaker 1: have made runs like this before. Right, just act normal. Also,
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  Speaker 1: this captain's hat is not just the symbolic thing. It's
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  Speaker 1: something that may be the watchman can see right as. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: it was. It was total of subterfuge. I mean, that
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  Speaker 1: was what they were hoping, is to pass on through
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  Speaker 1: without anything seeming amiss. So he tried to, you know,
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  Speaker 1: maintain he had seen he had been through these checkpoints
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  Speaker 1: many many times. He knew what the protocols were. He
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  Speaker 1: knew how the captain carried himself, so he tried to
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  Speaker 1: carry himself the same way. He stood there on the
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  Speaker 1: deck with his arms crossed and pulled the hat down
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  Speaker 1: over his face a little bit, but not in a
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  Speaker 1: suspicious way. It was also nighttime, obviously, and they're not
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  Speaker 1: passing directly by these folks that are, you know, manning
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  Speaker 1: the checkpoints for fifteen AM. As per the protocols, the
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  Speaker 1: planter blew its steam whistle, and according to a report,
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  Speaker 1: a lot of the information we have about this comes
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  Speaker 1: from this naval report, the Committee on Naval Affairs said
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  Speaker 1: the signal was blown as coolly as if General Ripley,
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  Speaker 1: who was at the time the commander of Charleston's Greater Defenses,
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  Speaker 1: was on board. The guard at Fort Sumter sounded their
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  Speaker 1: signal in return, and they were off. They passed the
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  Speaker 1: checkpoint without any incidents. Yes, yeah, and they ended up
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  Speaker 1: successfully passing five different Confederate gun batteries. So later the
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  Speaker 1: Confederate forces and members of the Confederate Army would argue
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  Speaker 1: that this worked because the Planter was known as a
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  Speaker 1: guard vessel as well as a supply ship. So there
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  Speaker 1: was a gun ship, right. I mean it had like
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  Speaker 1: you know, it had on board, had that immunition, but
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  Speaker 1: it also had guns and a pivot gun. So they
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  Speaker 1: were doing everything right. And once they got out of
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  Speaker 1: rebel gun range, an alarm went off because the Planter
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  Speaker 1: was clearly deviating from the known roots. It was heading
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  Speaker 1: directly for the Union blockade. And at this point, at
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  Speaker 1: this point, the next few events are key and history
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  Speaker 1: hinges on some very small decisions and they're very time sensitive.
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  Speaker 1: Smallest immediately orders the crew to take down that rebel flag,
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  Speaker 1: take down the palmetto flag, and then instead hoist up
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  Speaker 1: a white bedsheet that his wife Hannah has brought on board,
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  Speaker 1: and there's still in this this still like not daylight, right,
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  Speaker 1: these are the wee hours. And so there's this Confederate
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  Speaker 1: ship coming like assume the perspective of the Union sailors.
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  Speaker 1: There's a Union ship called the USS Onward, and they
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  Speaker 1: see this Confederate supply slash gut and vessel just bearing
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  Speaker 1: down on them. They can't see the surrender flag because
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  Speaker 1: the sun's not quite up yet, and they almost fire
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  Speaker 1: on the Planter until thank goodness, someone aboard the Onward says, hey,
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  Speaker 1: I see something. It looks like a white flag, right god. Um.
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  Speaker 1: So the command was rescinded and the tension on the
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  Speaker 1: Planter was palpable, and they I guess we're close enough
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  Speaker 1: at this point that they could tell that they were
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  Speaker 1: no longer being seen as a threat. Um. The Planter
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  Speaker 1: got to the blockade, small step forward, and in that
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  Speaker 1: also that cinematic moment, Beautiful whips off his hat and says,
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  Speaker 1: good morning, sir, I've brought you some of the old
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  Speaker 1: United States guns. Boom, mic drop, incredible, and they the
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  Speaker 1: Onward or someone had a stars and stripes flag and
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  Speaker 1: so they hoist that up and now they are a
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  Speaker 1: treasure trove for the Union forces. Yes, the guns are
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  Speaker 1: are going to help the war effort. Yes to the ammunition,
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  Speaker 1: but perhaps more importantly, the knowledge that this ship and
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  Speaker 1: Robert Small's brings to the Union. Now they know shipping routes, Now,
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  Speaker 1: they know locations were minds have been planted. They know
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  Speaker 1: the schedule upon which Confederate ships based their docking and
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  Speaker 1: their departures. So people had tried this before, They tried
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  Speaker 1: a version of this that were enslaved, people who had
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  Speaker 1: tried to reach the Union fleets by rowing out in canoes.
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  Speaker 1: But no one, absolutely no one had ever taken a
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  Speaker 1: Confederate vessel of this size and turned it over to
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  Speaker 1: the Union. Nobody had ever showed up with just this
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  Speaker 1: many guns, and we're like, here, let me give you
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  Speaker 1: some guns. So this guy quickly, right becomes a hero,
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  Speaker 1: especially in the Union, and folks are gushing about him.
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  Speaker 1: One Navy Admiral S. F. DuPont said, Robert Smalls is
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  Speaker 1: superior to any who have come into our lines. And
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  Speaker 1: the New York Daily Tribune has a great description of
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  Speaker 1: this too. That's right. If each one of the general
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  Speaker 1: in our army had displayed as much coolness and courage
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  Speaker 1: as small as did when he saluted the rebel flag
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  Speaker 1: and steamed past the rebel fort. By this time, the
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  Speaker 1: rebellion would have been among the things that were past lovely.
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  Speaker 1: So there's a lot of words to say a little thing,
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  Speaker 1: but I would say of the time, I gotta say
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  Speaker 1: to you, Ben, it feels like it's a common theme
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  Speaker 1: among racists to underestimate people from other of other races,
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  Speaker 1: you know, And that's the huge thing. And it's a
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  Speaker 1: huge thing that caused them to get their hats handed
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  Speaker 1: to them literally or taken from them. I don't know.
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  Speaker 1: The point is, you never underestim to make the enemy.
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  Speaker 1: And they got a little too cozy, and they thought
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  Speaker 1: that they just had these folks under their thumb. Would
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  Speaker 1: all the while they possessed intellect, They possessed the ability
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  Speaker 1: to listen and learn and to um come up with
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  Speaker 1: this incredible plan that required so much courage and just
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  Speaker 1: logistical you know, planning, you know, and and the ability
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  Speaker 1: to see an opening and take it. All the while,
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  Speaker 1: all these idiot confederates thought they could just you know,
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  Speaker 1: have a good old night on the town and that
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  Speaker 1: that you know, they're underlings who they thought were lesser
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  Speaker 1: than them would just do what they were supposed to
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  Speaker 1: do and just mind the shop. It's so ridiculous. Yet
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  Speaker 1: this is this is an interesting dichotomy because he said,
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  Speaker 1: Smalls is rightly hailed as a hero in Union territory,
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  Speaker 1: not so surprisingly in Confederate territory. They're very much more like,
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  Speaker 1: you're killing me Smalls. And they're there placing bounties on
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  Speaker 1: this guy, like a four thousand dollar bounty just four
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: perspective to inflation and calculator boop that one just for
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  Speaker 1: the perspective. That's uh, that's almost sixty seven thousand dollars today,
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  Speaker 1: significantly more than he was trying to save to free
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  Speaker 1: his family. And that captain, former captain of the planter
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  Speaker 1: Us finally get court martialed. He is sentenced to three
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  Speaker 1: months in prison. I think this later gets overturned. But
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  Speaker 1: the Confederate brass was honestly, they were honestly bewildered and
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  Speaker 1: confused because you know, racism is a lack of critical thinking,
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  Speaker 1: so they couldn't understand that people, you know, wouldn't want
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  Speaker 1: to be enslaved. That seems to be the part that
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  Speaker 1: they couldn't understand, and they even hatched this conspiracy theory
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  Speaker 1: that was short lived because we're talking about racism, But
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  Speaker 1: how racist is this? One guy? F. G. Ravenel concluded
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  Speaker 1: that two white men and a white woman must have
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  Speaker 1: conspired to make it happen, to make the escape happen,
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  Speaker 1: because in his mind, there was no way that people
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  Speaker 1: could have pulled this off on their own. So oddly enough,
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  Speaker 1: his conspiracy theory is easily disproved. There's no record of
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  Speaker 1: any white passengers on the planter at this time. Smalls
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  Speaker 1: and the planter's crew had acted alone. And now he is, again,
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  Speaker 1: we said, hailed as a hero. On May sixty two,
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  Speaker 1: the US Congress passes a bill authorizing the Navy to
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  Speaker 1: awards Smalls and his crew half of the value of
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  Speaker 1: the Planter in return for rescuing her from enemies of
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  Speaker 1: the government. So he gets fifteen hundred dollars just personally. Uh,
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  Speaker 1: And then he is able to I love these stories
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  Speaker 1: and all, he's able to buy his former owner's house.
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  Speaker 1: That's right, because at this point it's sort of moot
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  Speaker 1: the notion of him having to buy his freedom. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: he he won his freedom by sheer bravery Um, and
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  Speaker 1: you know, absolutely rightfully was looked at as a hero because,
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  Speaker 1: like he said, Ben, he provided so much tactical information
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  Speaker 1: that they never would have gotten otherwise and absolutely helped
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  Speaker 1: the war effort in the Union's favor. And and it
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  Speaker 1: was after the war ended that he was able to
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  Speaker 1: buy his former owner's house in Bufort off of the
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  Speaker 1: tax roles. It would have been I guess the equivalent
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  Speaker 1: of what like a repossession or something like that, like
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  Speaker 1: buying a house on the steps of the courthouse. Yeah, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: I think that's yeah, I think that's a good modern comparison.
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  Speaker 1: He also was underpaid, by the way. Later historians would
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  Speaker 1: find out. One thing that was really important that he
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  Speaker 1: got was something he couldn't put a price on. He
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  Speaker 1: had direct audiences with President Abraham Lincoln, like in a
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  Speaker 1: couple of different meetings. And in one of these meetings,
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  Speaker 1: Frederick Douglas joined the conversation, and Douglas is essentially saying
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  Speaker 1: to Lincoln, look, you have got to let African Americans
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  Speaker 1: joined the military. Uh, this is as who coming to
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  Speaker 1: us from the mental flaw article. And he says, furthermore,
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  Speaker 1: you should have this guy, Robert Smalls lead the cause
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  Speaker 1: and Smalls is on board. So he joins the U. S. Navy,
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  Speaker 1: and he personally recruits around five thousand soldiers to the
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  Speaker 1: war effort. Uh. And it's a strong case to make,
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  Speaker 1: you know, to say we are literally fighting for freedom.
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  Speaker 1: Not to mention this is again, this is still during
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  Speaker 1: the Civil War, you know, we we we fast forward
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  Speaker 1: it a little bit to when he bought the house,
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  Speaker 1: but there is quite a bit of conflict left. And
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  Speaker 1: now Smalls is occupying a strategic position, you know, in
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  Speaker 1: the U. S. Navy where he is using some of
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  Speaker 1: those things that he learned when he was listening, you know,
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  Speaker 1: and being underestimated in Charleston for the benefit of the Union.
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  Speaker 1: And he also recruits around five thousand African American soldiers.
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  Speaker 1: Then in October of eighteen sixty two, he actually goes
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  Speaker 1: back to the Planter and pilots it officially as part
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  Speaker 1: of Admiral DuPont's South Atlantic Blockading squadron Um. And according
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  Speaker 1: to that same eighteen eighty three Naval Affairs Committee report,
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  Speaker 1: Smalls engaged in no less than seventeen military operations, including
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  Speaker 1: a very important strategic one. On April seventh, eighteen sixty three, Um,
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  Speaker 1: the attack on Fort Sumter and another attack on Foley
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  Speaker 1: Island Creek, South Carolina a few months later, where he
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  Speaker 1: so he was the pilot, he wasn't the commander, just
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  Speaker 1: just to get the military turn straight. Before he was
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  Speaker 1: the wheelman to the pilot. Now he is the pilot
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  Speaker 1: to the commander. Um. But when they're getting pinned down
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  Speaker 1: with some was described in that report as very hot fire,
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  Speaker 1: the white man who was the captain of the ship
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  Speaker 1: apparently turned tail and hid in the coal bunker and
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  Speaker 1: Smalls had to take over. Um, and he you know,
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  Speaker 1: won the day essentially, and then the ship was steered
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  Speaker 1: to safety. Um. It's not a good look for the captain.
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  Speaker 1: Well yeah, I mean at this point, even like clearly
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  Speaker 1: the Union is still pretty racist itself, right, But at
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  Speaker 1: this point even the Union brass is like, Okay, this
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  Speaker 1: guy has pretty much been the captain of this ship
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  Speaker 1: like the whole time, right, He's we can just say that,
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  Speaker 1: and so to say, let's make it official. So he
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  Speaker 1: gets promoted to the rank of Navy captain, and he
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  Speaker 1: becomes one of the highest paid black soldiers of the
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  Speaker 1: Civil War because he is earning from eighteen sixty three
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  Speaker 1: on onward. He's earning about a hundred and fifty dollars
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  Speaker 1: a month. That's nothing to sneeze at. And he's not,
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: by the way, he's not resting on his laurels when
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: he's not out on the sea. Instead, when he is
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: not actively working as a Navy captain, he is fighting
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  Speaker 1: for civil rights. And we see stuff about this in
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: the historical record. Uh. The next year, in December of
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: eighteen sixty four, he gets booted out of a street
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  Speaker 1: car in Philadelphia because it's supposed to be a white
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: people only street car. And so he says, you know what,
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: you messed with the wrong guy. We're gonna protest the
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  Speaker 1: segregation in public transit. We're gonna organize, and we're going
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  Speaker 1: to use the power of the people to make sure
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: the public transit is actually for you know, members of
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  Speaker 1: the public. Three years later, Uh, those street cars got integrated.
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  Speaker 1: That's right. And when the war did finally come to
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  Speaker 1: an end in April of eighteen sixty five, there was
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  Speaker 1: a ceremony that took place on board the Planter in
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  Speaker 1: the Charleston Harbor where Smalls was in attendance. So full circle.
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  Speaker 1: There um pretty incredible story of a not a heist
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  Speaker 1: for the purposes of you know, personal gain or wealth,
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  Speaker 1: but one with with heart, you know, and with a
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  Speaker 1: absolutely justified goal. Yeah, it's a it's a it's a
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  Speaker 1: hist based in morality and emancipation. Yeah, this is so
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: Small's life doesn't end when the war ends. So he
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: returns to Beaufort, South Carolina, and this is when he
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: purchases that old house he grew up in because it
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: had been seized by union authorities. His former owners, the
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  Speaker 1: McKey family, try to sue for it, but he puts
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  Speaker 1: together testimony, uh, and he wins the He wins the lawsuit.
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  Speaker 1: He establishes a local school board. It's one of the
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  Speaker 1: first schools for black children in this part of the country.
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: He opens a general store. He in eighteen sixty eight,
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: he successfully runs for a seat in the South Carolina
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: House of Representatives, and then he runs for the state Senate.
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: Two years later, he starts a newspaper. We're just listing
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: things off at this point. This is how much stuff
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: the guys doing. Eighteen seventy two, he starts The Southern Standard,
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: and then he runs for US Congress just like two
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: years later. Yeah, talking about a landslide of the vote
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: UH and served five non consecutive terms where he pushed
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: for desegregation legislation in the military and restaurants UM from
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: his post in Washington, d C. And he was a
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: huge force within the military itself. He successfully pushed for
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: and led to the opening of the South Carolina Marine
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  Speaker 1: Base at Paris Island, which is also a very important
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: strategic location. Unfortunately, he was some the target of some
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: accusations of corruption. UM. He was accused by partisan forces
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: of taking a five thousand dollar bribe when he was
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: in the state Senate, and in eighteen seventy seven he
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: was convicted of that and served three years in prison.
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: Um he was released after an appeal and in eighteen
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: seventy nine he was pardoned by the governor. But stuff
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: like that's hard to you know, wash away, even if
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: it was, which it seems like it was to me
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: likely a smear campaign. Yeah yeah, And he was sentenced,
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: but it was he appealed to that, so he didn't
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: end up serving the full time, and it speaks volumes
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: that the governor pardoned him. Unfortunately, Hannah passes away in
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: eighteen eighty three. Later, in eighteen ninety, Smalls remarries. He
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: works as a collector for US customs from about eighteen
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: eighty nine to de early nineteen hundreds nineteen eleven. He
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: still active in politics. There is one strange moment that
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: occurs towards the ends of the end of this story.
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: Miss McKee, from all those years ago, it was still
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: alive and in later in her years, she suffers from dementia.
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: And if you've ever encountered someone who is you know
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: who is afflicted by this, you understand that they can
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: feel out of time, out of place, they can forget things,
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: and according to according to one story, she would wander
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: into his house more than once because it's how she
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: used to live at and she would think was still
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: her house, and so instead of kicking her out on
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: the street, he would often invite her inside until you
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: know someone could come help her, which I think says
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: powerful things, you know. And in nineteen fift Robert Smalls
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: passes away at age in the same house he grew
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: up in and he passes from diabetes and malaria. His
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: family goes on to live in the house for the
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: next ninety years. If you find yourself off out that
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: way in South Carolina, you can check out the house.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: It is a National Historic Landmark today. That's right. And
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: I think we can close with a with a really
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: great quote from UM. Robert Small's obviously witnessed the full
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: gamut of slavery, segregation, emancipation and everything that went along
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: with it, and the very slow process of obviously that
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: we're still dealing with today of you know, truly seeing
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: African Americans as equals and having them be treated that
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: way across the board. I think we've come a long way,
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: but sometimes it feels like two steps forward, three steps back. UM.
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: But this is what he had to say regarding you know,
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: Jim Crow laws and all and and just literally the
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: trajectory that I'm kind of describing. UM. He had this
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: to say, my race needs no special defense for the
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: past history of them in this country. It proves them
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  Speaker 1: to be the equal of any people anywhere. All they
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: need is an equal chance in the battle of life.
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: So we wanted to share some more parts of Robert
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: Small's story and things related to this, UH, and we
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: we are getting a lot of this information with the
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: help of our fantastic research associate, Gabe. So Gabe, if
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: you're listening, shout out to you, dude, as always. It
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: turns out that you may not have to travel to
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: South Carolina to see this house because Amazon is adapting
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: Robert Small's story into a movie, which I think is
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: long overdue. I've been familiar with the story in the past,
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: and my first question was like, why why is this
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: not already like ten different films totally. I mean, we
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: we've used the term of cinematic throughout this telling, and
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: I think it's it's absolutely perfect for that. The film
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: is called Steal Away, and the filmmaker's name is Charles Burnett,
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: who is attached to direct, with Cotty Chub and George
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: Plomondon as producers. This is from an article from Deadline.
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: And then we have Malcolm m Mays, who I'm not
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: super familiar with. Young young actor, looks to be um
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: and he was in a film called snow Fall Um.
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: He's also a filmmaker. He's he directed some things. He
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: is writing the script with t I attached along with
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: John ortiz Um. No specifics are been given yet about
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: who's gonna play who. Yep, we're we're a little bit
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: ahead of the curve here. Uh. You can also see
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: uh memorial to Robert Small's at the Waterfront Park in Charleston.
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: Don't miss that. And this is just one example of
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: the stories that you may not have learned in high
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: school about this period in history. And these stories are
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: important and they do matter in the modern day. We
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: would love to hear other stories like this that you
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: may know from you know, your own family history or
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: from your neck of the global woods. These sorts of
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: inspirational heist and escapes. Thank you so much everyone for
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: tuning into this two parter episode. Uh side note peek
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: behind the curtain. Noel, Max and I decided that we
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: would do our own heist for Heist Week, so we've
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: stolen another week in our hist week. So now we've
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: got like it's it's just heist time. It's Hist Fortnite,
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: Heist Fortnite Hist season, so we can't wait for you
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: to tune in to learn about another heist related to Australia.
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: Those are all the spoilers will give you. But as
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: we're thanking people, of course, big big thanks to Casey Pegram,
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: big big thanks to Max Williams, uh and big big
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: thanks to Alex Williams who composed this track. As this
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: is a spoiler alert, now we're we talking about having
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: Alex on the show. Yeah, we are. We are definitely
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: gonna do that around a really cool historical episode of
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: Ephemeral that is already available, so why not check it
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: out now? Max tell us a little bit about the
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: episode so people can listen to advance of Alex's appearance. Yeah. Yeah, Yeah,
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: it's a super exciting episode that we have. It is
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: called thirty seven Days of Peril. It is based off
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: of the writing stuff this guy named Truman efforts and
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: it's actually it's a pretty cool stories about his real
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: life experience of pretty much getting lost in the middle
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: of Montana and Wyoming. So it takes place like eighteen
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: seventy and unfortunately he gets separated from not just this party,
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: but then loses Actually, you know, I want to cut
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: off there because you all should go and listen to this,
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: but you know, just a harring tale of perseverance and
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: you know, getting through the odds when you shouldn't. Um
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: amazing sound designed by Alex Williams just sounds absolutely amazing
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: for fans of this podcast. You may you know hear
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: familiar voice, which is a pretty good, pretty funny, rather
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: enjoyable and all in all, I just think it's an
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: amazing listen. And obviously we'll talk about that some more here,
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: you know, hopefully in the near future. But yeah, go
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: check that out once again. It is ephemeral. The episode
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: is thirty seven Days of Harold. And while you're there,
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: you know, mus go check out the rest of our content.
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: We have all seasons one and two out now and
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: we were releasing a new episode every other week. Check
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: it out Ephemeral the podcast on the I Heart Radio app,
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast. Uh. In
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: the meantime, huge thanks to you, Max, Huge thanks to
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: Alex who composed our theme. Ben, thank you as well
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: for going on this adventure with us. Hey back at
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: you and old Thank you as always, and of course
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: a better way to end uh. Big thanks to our
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: nemessies Jonathan Strickland for not show it enough yep, but
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: I think you for for a show up for a
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: drop in. And once again thanks to Gabe Luizier for
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: finding all these amazing sources. Uh and thanks to all
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: the you know, originators of all these amazing storces, PBS,
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: Mental Flaws, History Daily dot org, Battlefields dot org, Smithsonian
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: mag and NPS dot gov and once more. To learn
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: more about this and dive deeper into the story of
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: Robert Smalls, be sure to check out Beef Free or Die,
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: the amazing story of Robert Small's escape from slavery to
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: Union hero. We'll see you next time, folks. For more
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: podcasts from My Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app,
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.