Robert Smalls

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Robert Smalls

Robert Smalls (born April 5, 1839 in Beaufort , South Carolina , †  February 22, 1915 there ) was an American politician . Between 1875 and 1887 he represented the state of South Carolina in the US House of Representatives several times .

Career

Robert Smalls was born a slave and was used as a house slave in his youth. From 1851 he worked in the port of Charleston . At the beginning of the civil war he was transferred to the Navy of the Confederate States . In May 1862 he managed a spectacular escape. He hijacked a Confederate cargo ship loaded with artillery supplies and navigated it to Union ships. For his deed he was celebrated as a war hero in the north . He received a reward and was received by US President Abraham Lincoln .

In the following years he served first in the Navy and then in the Union Army. However, he was listed as a civilian and not a soldier. Smalls became the first African-American captain of a Union ship. After the war he returned to Beaufort. There he bought an estate from his former master. He also opened a shop in which former slaves in particular could buy. At the same time he began a political career as a member of the Republican Party . In 1868 he was a delegate to a meeting to revise the state constitution of South Carolina.

From 1868 to 1870 Smalls was a member of the House of Representatives from South Carolina ; between 1870 and 1874 he was a member of the State Senate . In 1872 and 1876 he was a delegate to the respective Republican National Conventions , at which Ulysses S. Grant and later Rutherford B. Hayes were nominated as presidential candidates. In 1874 Smalls was elected to the United States House of Representatives in Washington, DC in the fifth constituency of South Carolina , where he succeeded Richard H. Cain on March 4, 1875 . After being re-elected in 1876, he was able to remain in Congress for two terms until March 3, 1879 . After allegations of alleged corruption, Smalls lost in 1878 to George D. Tillman of the Democratic Party . Smalls appealed against the outcome of the election. After this was granted, he was able to resume his previous seat in the House of Representatives on July 19, 1882, and the legislative period ended on March 3, 1883.

After the death of Congressman Edmund William McGregor Mackey in January 1884, Smalls was elected in the Seventh District as his successor in Congress. After he was confirmed in the regular congressional elections in 1884, he was able to spend another legislative period until March 3, 1887 in the House of Representatives. In 1886 he was defeated by the Democrat William Elliott .

Between 1897 and 1913 Robert Smalls was in charge of customs in the port of Beaufort. He died in this city in 1915 of malaria and diabetes.

Web links

Commons : Robert Smalls  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Reef, Catherine. African Americans in the Military. Infobase Publishing, May 14, 2014, pp. 184-186.
personal data
SURNAME Smalls, Robert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American politician
DATE OF BIRTH April 5, 1839
PLACE OF BIRTH Beaufort , South Carolina
DATE OF DEATH February 22, 1915
Place of death Beaufort , South Carolina