He Stole a Confederate Warship & Sailed to Freedom

[00:00:00]Did you know a man once stole a Confederate warship and sailed it to freedom using the exact skills his enslavers had trained him [music] to master? His name was Robert Smalls. Born into slavery in Beaufort, South Carolina, he was hired out to work the Charleston Harbor as a young man. He learned every waterway, every signal, every checkpoint. He became one of the best harbor pilots on the coast. His enslavers [music] saw a useful tool.

[00:00:24]Robert saw something else entirely. On the night of May 13th, 1862, the white officers of the Confederate gunboat Planter went ashore. Robert [music] moved fast. He gathered his family, his crewmates, and their families. He put on the captain's hat. [music] He gave the correct signals at all five checkpoints, and he sailed that ship straight into Union hands. The Confederacy was stunned. The Union made him a hero. He piloted Union ships through the war, helped convince Lincoln to enlist black soldiers, and eventually bought the house where he had once been enslaved.

[00:00:57]Then South Carolina sent him to Congress. The system that built him could not stop him.