Robert Smalls Robert Smalls ( April 5 , 1839 – February 23 , 1915 ) was an enslaved African American who , during and after the American Civil War , became a ship ' s pilot , sea captain , and politician . He freed himself , his crew and their families from slavery on May 13 , 1862 , by commandeering a Confederate transport ship , the CSS " Planter " , in Charleston harbor , and sailing it to freedom beyond the Federal blockade . His example and persuasion helped convince President Lincoln to accept African - American soldiers into the Union Army . He was born in Beaufort , South Carolina . After the American Civil War , he became a politician , elected to the South Carolina State legislature and the United States House of Representatives . As a politician , Smalls authored state legislation providing for South Carolina to have the first free and compulsory public school system in the United States , and founded the Republican Party of South Carolina . He is notable as the last Republican to represent South Carolina ' s 5th congressional district until 2010 . Early life . Robert was born in 1839 into slavery in a cabin behind the house of his master Henry McKee on 511 Prince Street in Beaufort , South Carolina . He grew up in the city under the influence of the Lowcountry Gullah culture of his mother . Smalls ' mother , Lydia Polite , was a slave held by McKee . Life in Charleston . McKee sent Robert to Charleston at the age of 12 to be leased out , or hired out , with the money earned to be returned to his master . He held several jobs . He started out in a hotel , then became a lamplighter on the streets of Charleston . His love of the water led him to work on the docks and wharves of Charleston in his teen years . He became a stevedore ( dockworker ) , a rigger , a sail maker , and eventually worked his way up to being a wheelman ( essentially a pilot , though blacks were not called pilots ) . He became very knowledgeable of the Charleston harbor . Marriage and family . Robert met a hotel maid , Hannah Jones , and married her on December 24 , 1856 . Hannah was five years older and already had a daughter at the time . Hannah and Robert had their first child , Elizabeth Lydia , in February 1858 . In 1861 they had another child , Robert Jr . , who died in 1863 . Escape from the Confederacy . In the fall of 1861 , Smalls was assigned to steer the CSS " Planter " , an armed Confederate military transport . On May 12 , 1862 , the " Planter " ' s three white officers decided to spend the night ashore . About 3 : 00 am on the 13th , Smalls and seven of the eight enslaved crewmen decided to make a run for the Union vessels that formed the blockade , as they had earlier planned . Smalls dressed in the captain ' s uniform and had a straw hat similar to that of the white captain . He backed the " Planter " out of what was then known as Southern Wharf around 3 a . m . The " Planter " stopped at a nearby wharf to pick up Smalls ' family and the relatives of other crewmen , who had been concealed there for some time . With his crew and the women and children , Smalls made the daring escape . The " Planter " had as cargo four valuable artillery pieces , besides its own two guns . Perhaps most valuable was the code book that would reveal the Confederate ' s secret signals , and the placement of mines and torpedoes in and around Charleston harbor . Smalls used proper signals so the Confederate soldiers would not know he was escaping in the ship . Smalls piloted the ship past the five Confederate forts that guarded the harbor , including Fort Sumter . The renegade ship passed by Sumter approximately 4 : 30 a . m . He headed straight for the Federal fleet , which was part of the Union blockade of Confederate ports , making sure to hoist a white sheet as a flag . The first ship he encountered was USS " Onward " , which was preparing to fire until a sailor noticed the white flag . When the " Onward " ' s captain boarded the " Planter " , Smalls requested to raise the United States flag immediately . Smalls turned the " Planter " over to the United States Navy , along with its cargo of artillery and explosives intended for a Confederate fort . Service to the Union . Because of his extensive knowledge of the shipyards and Confederate defenses , Smalls provided valuable assistance to the Union Navy . He gave detailed information about the harbor ' s defenses to Admiral Samuel Dupont , commander of the blockading fleet . Smalls quickly became famous in the North . Numerous newspapers ran articles describing his daring actions . Congress passed a bill , signed by President Abraham Lincoln , that rewarded Smalls and his crewmen with the prize money for the captured " Planter " . Smalls ' own share was $ 1 , 500 ( about $ 34 , 000 adjusted for inflation in 2012 dollars ) , a huge sum for the time . He met Abraham Lincoln in late May 1862 ( two weeks later ) and gave the President his personal account . His deeds became a major argument for allowing African Americans to serve in the Union Army . Smalls served under the Navy until March 1863 , when he was transferred to the Army . He was never enrolled in either branch of service but served as a civilian . By his personal account , Smalls served in 17 different engagements during the Civil War . With the encouragement of Major - General David Hunter , the Union commander at Port Royal , Smalls went to Washington , DC . , with Mansfield French in August 1862 , to try to persuade President Lincoln and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton to permit black men to fight for the Union . He was successful and received an order signed by Stanton permitting up to 5 , 000 African Americans to enlist in the Union forces at Port Royal . These men were organized as the 1st and 2nd South Carolina Volunteers . Smalls served as a pilot for the Union Navy . In the fall of 1862 , " Planter " had been transferred to the Union Army for service near Fort Pulaski . The Union got Smalls as a naval pilot . Smalls was later reassigned to the USS " Planter " , now a Union transport . On April 7 , 1863 , he piloted ironclad USS " Keokuk " in a major Union attack on Fort Sumter . The attack failed , and " Keokuk " was badly damaged . Her crew was rescued shortly before the ship sank . In December 1863 , Smalls became the first black captain of a vessel in the service of the United States . On December 1 , 1863 , the " Planter " had been caught in a crossfire between Union and Confederate forces . The ship ' s commander , Captain Nickerson , decided to surrender . Smalls refused , fearing that the black crewmen would not be treated as prisoners of war and might be summarily killed . Taking command , Smalls piloted the ship out of range of the Confederate guns . For his bravery , Smalls was named to replace Nickerson as the " Planter ' s " captain . Smalls returned with the " Planter " to Charleston harbor in April 1865 for the ceremonial raising of the American flag upon Ft . Sumter . After the Civil War . Immediately following the war , Smalls returned to his native Beaufort , where he purchased his former master ' s house at 512 Prince St . His mother Lydia lived with him for the remainder of her life . He allowed his former master ' s wife ( Jane Bond McKee , who was elderly ) to move back in the home prior to her death . In 1866 Smalls went into business in Beaufort with Richard Howell Gleaves , opening a store for freedmen . That same year in April , the " radical " Republicans who controlled Congress overrode President Andrew Johnson ' s vetoes and passed a Civil Rights Act , along with ratifying the 14th Amendment , extending citizenship to all Americans regardless of their race . Smalls identified with the Republican Party , saying it was " The party of Lincoln which unshackled the necks of four million human beings . " In his campaign speeches he said , " Every colored man who has a vote to cast , would cast that vote for the regular Republican Party and thus bury the Democratic Party so deep that there will not be seen even a bubble coming from the spot where the burial took place . " Later in life he recalled , " I can never loose " [ sic ] " sight of the fact that had it not been for the Republican Party , I would have never been an office - holder of any kind — from 1862 — to present . " He was a delegate at several Republican National Conventions and participated in the South Carolina Republican State conventions . During the Reconstruction era , Smalls was elected a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives from 1865 and 1870 , and the South Carolina Senate between 1871 and 1874 . He also served briefly as the commander of the South Carolina Militia with the rank of major general . In 1874 , Smalls was elected to the United States House of Representatives , where he served from 1875 to 1879 . From 1882 to 1883 he represented South Carolina ' s 5th congressional district in the House . The state legislature gerrymandered to change the boundaries , including Beaufort and other heavily black , coastal areas in South Carolina ' s 7th congressional district , making the others with high white majorities . Smalls was elected from the 7th district and served from 1884 to 1887 . He was a member of the 44th , 45th , and 47th through 49th U . S . Congresses . During consideration of a bill to reduce and restructure the United States Army , Smalls introduced an amendment that “ Hereafter in the enlistment of men in the Army . . . no distinction whatsoever shall be made on account of race or color . ” The amendment was not considered by Congress . He is the last Republican to have been elected from the 5th district until 2010 . He was the longest serving African - American member of Congress until Adam Clayton Powell , Jr . in the late 20th Century . After the Compromise of 1877 , the federal government withdrew its forces from South Carolina and other southern states . White Democrats had used violence and election fraud to regain control in the state legislature . As part of wide - ranging Southern white efforts to reduce African - American political power , Smalls was charged and convicted of taking a bribe five years earlier in connection with the awarding of a printing contract . He was pardoned as part of an agreement in which charges were also dropped against Democrats who had been accused of election fraud . [ Foner , p . 198 ] Smalls was active politically into the twentieth century . He was a delegate to the 1895 constitutional convention , and , together with five other black politicians , strongly opposed white Democrat efforts to disfranchise black citizens . They wrote an article for the " New York World " to publicize the issues , but the constitution was ratified . It and similar constitutions passed court challenges of the time . Smalls was appointed U . S . Collector of Customs in Beaufort , serving from 1889 – 1911 with only a short break in service . He lived as owner of the house in which he had been a slave . Smalls died in 1915 at the age of 75 . He was buried in his family ' s plot in downtown Beaufort .