Robert Smalls – Man Crush Monday!

Dr. Vernon Burton tells the many amazing stories that make up the life of Robert Smalls, a genuine Civil War hero, and a man who deserves far more fame and glory than he’s received! From piloting a Confederate States ship out of Charleston Harbor and turning it over to the United States Navy, to becoming an important Reconstruction-era politician, to being a publisher and an educator, Smalls was an American Renaissance man. And yet there is no movie about him. Let’s correct that! Episode 498.

Buzzkill Bookshelf

Edward A Miller, Gullah Statesman: Robert Smalls from Slavery to Congress, 1839-1915

A native of Beaufort, South Carolina, Robert Smalls was born into slavery but―through acts of remarkable courage and determination―became the first African American hero of the Civil War and one of the most influential African American politicians in South Carolina history. In this largely political biography of Smalls’s inspirational story, Edward A. Miller, Jr., traces the triumphs and setbacks of the celebrated U.S. congressman and advocate of compulsory, desegregated public education to illustrate how the life and contributions of this singular individual were indicative of the rise and fall of political influence for all African Americans during this rough transitional period in American history.

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