13 May 1862
Self-emancipationBook sources
Robert Smalls and others escape aboard the Planter
Charleston Harbor, South Carolina
Robert Smalls and fellow enslaved crew members took the Confederate transport Planter out of Charleston, carrying relatives with them and reaching Union forces. Their escape used maritime knowledge acquired under slavery to secure freedom.
Dates preserve the source’s precision. This entry is part of a selected historical record; its qualifications and sources are retained below.
Context / qualification
Smalls’s leadership depended on a collective operation. This entry does not treat freedom as solely a gift of federal policy or assign a disputed passenger count.
Sources
- Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States, chapter 9, pp. 193–195; supplied print pages, edition/year unidentified
- National Park Service: Words Have Power, Robert Smalls ↗