
The Slave Who Stole the Confederate Codes and a Rebel Warship - wallflower
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/07/23/the-slave-who-stole-the-confederate-codes-and-a-rebel-warship.html
======
virmundi
This is the guy we should make a movie, not a documentary, about. It's gets
better. He steals the boat, goes North after helping his family, become a
Northern army official, comes back with another gun boat and kicks ass. Then
he's elected into office. If you ever needed a positive black role model, it's
Smalls.

~~~
lbhnact
Yeah, I was standing in Charleston Harbor reading the historical plaque about
this guy a few years ago and had the same thought.

This is a movie I want to see made by a real director - it's an incredible
story that deserves to be shared with the public.

~~~
brightball
I think this is an important comment to take note of...

"I was standing in Charleston Harbor reading the historical plaque about this
guy"

There are a number of people who I think would be shocked to read that.

~~~
lbhnact
Because they have the plaque? Charleston is all about it's history and was the
epicenter of the slave trade, so I wasn't surprised to see it I suppose.

Reading it sure did send a shiver down my spine though. Looking out over the
harbor, with the mansion estates of The Battery directly at your back, knowing
all the chapters of so many lives that began and ended there, suffering to
create the wealth that built them.

It's certainly not your average spot to process a sidewalk history plaque - I
recommend a visit sometime.

------
taneq
> After pulling out of the dock, the Planter stopped at the West Atlantic
> Wharf to pick up Hannah and the children along with four other women, three
> more men, and another child.

So this guy jacked a warship (without spilling a drop of blood!) to evacuate
his friends and family out of slavery. Sounds like a proper hero to me!

~~~
vkou
Why praise not spilling a drop of blood? It was wartime - if he had killed the
enemy, that would have been even better.

~~~
SideburnsOfDoom
He wasn't a soldier at that time, just a defector with a risky plan. The
"enemy" were people he had worked alongside hours earlier.

~~~
sangnoir
> The "enemy" were people he had worked alongside hours earlier

I think you mean people he had _slaved under_ \- let's call a spade a spade
here, they could have talked cordially and all, they did not consider
themselves his peers - the only people a chattel slave 'works' alongside with
are other slaves

~~~
LyndsySimon
No, not always. In many cases - on both sides of the conflict - the "enemy"
were slaves as well. Many of those who were free were conscripts.

~~~
sangnoir
> In many cases - on both sides of the conflict - the "enemy" were slaves as
> well. Many of those who were free were conscripts.

Are you seriously equating conscription with chattel slavery? A chattel slave
is the _property_ of his master, his children are automatically his master's
property at birth, like livestock. How many newly-born were conscripted, on
either side? How many women were conscripted? Were entire families conscripted
on the basis of the father's conscription?

------
brownbat
Excellently dramatized by Nate DiMeo in The Memory Palace earlier this year:

[http://thememorypalace.us/2016/02/the-
wheel/](http://thememorypalace.us/2016/02/the-wheel/)

If you want a hundred other brilliant moments from history, beautifully told,
that's the podcast.

~~~
werber
Wow! This is an amazing podcast!

------
stcredzero
_We don’t know precisely why the three white officers on board a Confederate
transport and gunboat called the CSS Planter decided to go ashore in
Charleston, South Carolina..._

Shucks, Any sailor can tell you about this! If you're going to work a con,
best to use the strongest instincts in your favor, in this case, the prospect
of booze and women.

 _Robert’s mother would tell him “you may be enslaved, but you are not a
slave.”...He had trouble accepting a world in which he played with white
children during the day, then was forced to quit when curfew came for slaves.
“He was, as the story goes, disturbed and angered by having a different set of
rules.”_

From my experience, this is the takeaway: That being told earnestly of your
worth is something very powerful for human beings, especially for children.
I've experienced this from both sides on a number of occasions. As someone who
grew up Asian in isolation from any kind of Asian community, I got both sides
at once. I was respected as an example of intelligence, studiousness, and good
behavior. At the same time, I was regarded as somehow less human --
emotionally, spiritually, and sexually inferior. It was so true, it was one of
_those_ so-true-its-funny jokes. I grew up supremely bolstered and confident
in one way, horribly wounded in another. (It's taken me literally decades to
recover, but now find myself in a relationship with someone intelligent and
wonderful.) I wonder if Robert experienced the same division of experience,
inverted? He knew from direct experience that he was just as smart and
precocious as his playmates, yet was subject to arbitrary discrimination.

Sincere feedback given _in the context of risk_ is the most powerful thing for
a child. As a teacher of traditional music, I could see parents who didn't
themselves play music bring their children, hoping to coddle and encourage
them into participating. They _always_ failed. Then, there were other children
who grew up in households where the parents were part of a community who took
joy in music and pride in excellence. You couldn't stop those kids, even in
the face of frank and honest feedback. If there are any missing ingredients
from our child-rearing environment, it is risk, undiluted challenge, and
sincere passion.

------
jawilson2
Always a classic:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iG2r79jiTE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iG2r79jiTE)

------
Dowwie
Thought I was about to read a Star Wars article.. sigh.

