Yearning to Breathe Free

Yearning to Breathe Free

Robert Smalls of South Carolina and His Families

  • Autor: Billingsley, Andrew; Clyburn, James E.
  • Editor: University of South Carolina Press
  • ISBN: 9781570036866
  • eISBN Pdf: 9781643362151
  • Lugar de publicación:  South Carolina , Estados Unidos
  • Año de publicación digital: 2021
  • Mes: Marzo
  • DDC: 973.8092 B
  • Idioma: Ingles

A sociological approach to appreciating the heroism and legacy of the Gullah statesman

On May 13, 1862, Robert Smalls (1839-1915) commandeered a Confederate warship, the Planter, from Charleston harbor and piloted the vessel to cheering seamen of the Union blockade, thus securing his place in the annals of Civil War heroics. Slave, pilot, businessman, statesman, U.S. congressman—Smalls played many roles en route to becoming an American icon, but none of his accomplishments was a solo effort. Sociologist Andrew Billingsley offers the first biography of Smalls to assess the influence of his families—black and white, past and present—on his life and enduring legend. In so doing, Billingsley creates a compelling mosaic of evolving black-white social relations in the American South as exemplified by this famous figure and his descendants.

Born a slave in Beaufort, South Carolina, Robert Smalls was raised with his master's family and grew up amid an odd balance of privilege and bondage which instilled in him an understanding of and desire for freedom, culminating in his daring bid for freedom in 1862. Smalls served with distinction in the Union forces at the helm of the Planter and, after the war, he returned to Beaufort to buy the home of his former masters—a house that remained at the center of the Smalls family for a century. A founder of the South Carolina Republican Party, Smalls was elected to the state house of representatives, the state senate, and five times to the United States Congress. Throughout the trials and triumphs of his military and public service, he was surrounded by growing family of supporters. Billingsley illustrates how this support system, coupled with Smalls's dogged resilience, empowered him for success.

Writing of subsequent generations of the Smalls family, Billingsley delineates the evolving patterns of opportunity, challenge, and change that have been the hallmarks of the African American experience thanks to the selfless investments in freedom and family made by Robert Smalls of South Carolina.

  • Cover
  • YEARNING TO BREATHE FREE
  • Title
  • Copyright
  • Dedication
  • CONTENTS
  • List of Illustrations
  • Foreword
  • Preface
  • Acknowledgments
  • Robert Smalls’s Family Tree
  • Prologue
  • PART I: SOCIAL BACKGROUND
    • 1 Slavery, Religion, and Family in the Robert Smalls Legacy
    • 2 In the House of Pharaoh: Growing Up in Bondage and Privilege, 1839–1851
    • 3 On the Waterfront: Growing to Manhood in Charleston, 1851–1862
  • PART II: FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM
    • 4 The Seizure of the Planter: A Family Affair, May 13, 1862
    • 5 Early Duty for the Union Forces, 1862
    • 6 Robert Smalls and the USS Keokuk, April 7, 1863
    • 7 Robert Smalls and the Planter at War, 1862–1866
  • PART III: STUDY WAR NO MORE
    • 8 In Beaufort after the War: Home, Family, and Community Leadership
    • 9 Mr. Republican: Smalls’s Political Leadership during Reconstruction, 1868–1877
    • 10 They Tried to Cut Him Down: The Trial of Robert Smalls, November 9, 1877
  • PART IV: AFTER RECONSTRUCTION
    • 11 Consummate Politician, 1877–1889
    • 12 Robert Smalls and the Constitutional Convention of 1895
  • PART V: FAMILIES ARE FOREVER
    • 13 The Bampfields of Beaufort: Samuel and Elizabeth Bampfield and Their Children
    • 14 Hannah’s Children
    • 15 Annie Wigg’s Family
    • 16 A Summing Up: What Is He to Us?
  • Notes
  • Bibliography
  • Index

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