Robert Smalls first made history by escaping slavery by pretending to be a white ship’s captain, and sailing a boat to freedom during the American Civil War.
Smalls was born April 5, 1839 to his white slave owner father, Henry McKee, and his mother Lydia Polite, a slave McKee owned who was also a member of the “Gullah” people. In 1861, Smalls was hired as a deckhand for the USS Planter. Unknown to many of his white superiors, Smalls was intelligent and had an intimate knowledge of the waters of the South Carolina coast.