Robert Smalls

Robert Smalls (http://www.scmuseum.org/!UserFiles/exhibits/TEP/RobertSmalls2.jpg)

Robert Smalls lived in the 19th century around the Civil War time. He was living in a state where slavery was still legal. Smalls is my hero because he risked his life to save someone who was in grave danger of being hurt or killed. In this instance he rescued slaves using a stolen Confederate boat before he entered Union waters. His actions were important because the boat that he stole was full of weapons bound for Confederate forts. He also saved many slaves from having to work long hour in fields.

The Planter (http://www.robertsmalls-hf.org/img/Planter1.jpg)

Robert Smalls was stationed on a Confederate Navy ship. He decided one night that while all the white men were sleeping on the ship that he and other slaves stationed on the ship would take it. This fit my definition of a hero because he risked his life to save the other slaves on board from being killed if the ship were in a battle. Smalls was brave while taking the ship because he had to get it by several watch towers using whistle signals. If he got one wrong they might have set the Planter to the bottom of the Ocean. Without Smalls there could have been hundreds of Union and slave deaths because of what the Planter would have done in combat.

Smalls after taking the Planter went to another Confederate ship that had many slaves on it, including his family. Smalls rescued all the slaves on board and then turned the ship over to Union forces. This action that Smalls performed met my definition of a hero because he put his life in danger to save others on the Confederate ship that was housing about a dozen slaves. Without his heroic action to save a dozen slaves, those men and woman could have died in the hands of Confederate forces. He really put his life in danger to save those slaves. Smalls had a lot of luck to rescue guarded slaves and not get spotted. He could have been shot at, at any time, but he was not because of his clever actions. This impacted many lives because most of those dozen slaves he saved were his own family. He could have lost his own family if he had not had the guts or courage to risk his life to save them.

(http://www.susantaylorbrown.com/images/RobertSmalls.jpg)

Smalls was not considered a hero by Confederate forces. As a matter of fact they had a $60,000 bounty on his head. The Confederate forces tried to get the Union to give up the Planter along with Smalls because they thought that he was a criminal. They tried to stop Smalls from being considered a hero by ordering the President to give him up because he has stolen property that belonged to them and that he was no hero but a criminal. The Confederate forces thought that he was to be punished for his actions but the Union didn’t. Smalls was not squished because he had the Union government on his side saying that they would not give them Smalls.

His action benefited all people after him because he was the first black captain on the navy and he was a black congressman. He set the record that anyone could become any rank in the military and even hold political positions in the government. He was a hero in many people’s minds back then that liked the Union. The Confederates didn’t like him that much.