A bill renaming the post office at the Beaufort Plaza Shopping Center in Burton for Civil War hero and local legend Robert Smalls has passed a US House committee.
“He leaves an unmistakable legacy of grit, bravery, and determination which is imbued in the spirit of the Lowcountry to this day,” Rep. Nancy Mace said in a statement last week. She calls Smalls an “exceptional American.”
At the start of the Civil War, the enslaved Smalls was a pilot on the CSS Planter. On the morning of May 13, 1862, Smalls led the takeover of the ship by its slave crew, sailed past Charleston Harbor’s formidable defenses and surrendered the vessel to the Union blockade fleet. His wife and children were among those on board who gained freedom.
Smalls, 23 at the time, was celebrated across the North for his daring ride to freedom and he served as a ship’s pilot for the rest of the conflict. See his fascinating life story here.
The entire South Carolina congressional delegation supports the honor at the Beaufort Plaza Shopping Center, fittingly located on Robert Smalls Parkway, Mace said. John Seibels, Mace’s spokesman, told the Island Packet that the bill will go the House floor for a vote, which he said will likely pass easily.
The naming would be the latest honor for Robert Smalls. It was recently announced that a Hollywood movie is also in the works about his legendary heroic life.
After the war, he returned to Beaufort and bought his former master’s home. Following a stint in South Carolina’s Legislature, he was then elected to 5 terms as a Congressman in the U.S. House of Representatives and was appointed the Collector of Customs in Beaufort, a lucrative federal appointment, and held the post for almost 20 years despite opposition from local white politicians.
While in Congress, Smalls fought against the disenfranchisement of black voters across the South, according to the American Battlefield Trust. He also fought against segregation within the military, and created the Republican party in SC.
Smalls died in 1915 at age 75 and his funeral was the biggest one that ever took place in Beaufort SC.
“Each day I spend in Congress, I strive to live up to the values which Robert Smalls so clearly embodied,” said Mace.
See the proposed House Bill renaming the Burton Post Office after Robert Smalls here.
