That’s the question the Post & Courier is posing…..
“COLUMBIA – South Carolina is a place where it’s nearly impossible to separate politics from history, and history from politics.
The Statehouse has been the scene of fraught debates over the Confederate flag on its grounds, monuments across the state and, this session, how history can be taught in the classroom.
But one man — Robert Smalls — and his extraordinary story, seems to have broken through the tangled emotions binding the state’s present politics to its past.
Born a slave in Beaufort in 1839, Smalls became a Civil War hero at age 23 when he piloted a Confederate ship, the Planter, out of Charleston Harbor to the Union blockade in the Atlantic. The daring escape made him a sensation in the North. After the war, he served in the state House of Representatives and Senate then in Congress, helping draft the state’s Reconstruction constitution and defending the rights of Black citizens.”
To read the entire Post & Courier article CLICK HERE.
Interesting story…but the P&C link will hit a paywall if you’re not a subscriber. There’s lots of info on Robert Smalls on our website at these links:
U.S. Navy Re-names Ship in Honor of Civil War/Reconstruction icon Robert Smalls
Robert Smalls on The Charleston Time Machine
3 MORE MARKERS ADDED TO LOWCOUNTRY UNDERGRUND RAILROAD TRAIL