Robert Smalls: The Enslaved Pilot Who Stole a Confederate Warship and Sailed Himself to Freedom
Before dawn on May 13, 1862, an enslaved harbor pilot named Robert Smalls put on the captain’s hat, gave the secret whistle signal at every Confederate fort in Charleston, and sailed a rebel warship straight out to the Union fleet — carrying his family, his crew, and a cannon meant to keep them in chains.