ROBERT SMALLS,
THE NEGRO PILOT. – Robert Smalls, the colored pilot who escaped from Charleston harbor
with the gun-boat Planter, was in town yesterday. This man, though
black, is a hero – one of the few History will delight to honor. He has done something for his race and for
the world of mankind. If each one of the Generals in our army had
displayed as much coolness and courage as he did when he saluted the Rebel flag
and steamed past the Rebel fort, by this time the Rebellion would have been
among the things that were. Smalls represents a race of blacks – a
nation of slaves – many of whom are watching as he did for an opportunity to
get away from their oppressors. He
did not believe the rumors, got up by his masters, that the Northern people
desired to catch the negroes and sell them to defray the expenses of war. On
the contrary, hearing a faint whisper of Gen. Hunter’s emancipation
proclamation, he had confidence in his promise of freedom; so he looked death squarely
in the face, and then started on his perilous errand.
There are several points in his case worthy of note.
He is a black man; yet he knows enough to pilot a boat. He was a slave, and yet
shrewd enough to cut the ropes and start the boat at the lucky moment when the
white officers were ashore; a slave, and yet he had influence enough to control
the crew of slaves on board who were anxious to obtain their freedom – a slave
able to understand the hint from Gen. Hunter. He has added new proof to the
evidence that negroes have skill – and courage and tact, and that they will
risk their lives for the sake of their liberty. He steered for the
blockading squadron, and surrendered the prize to the United States
authorities, and then offered his services to the Government. Subsequently
meeting the lamented Gen. Stevens, the General remarked, “So your name is
Smalls, is it – by God, but you have done a very big thing.”
Out of this arises several questions. He is a nigger
– and niggers are fit only for slavery? Is he not also a man – and is he not
fit for freedom, since he made such a hazardous dash to gain it? “Niggers are
only apes endowed with the faculty for speech.”
Is he not a man and a hero – whose pluck has not been questioned by even
The Charleston Courier, or The New York Herald? What white man has
made a bolder dash, or won a richer prize in the teeth of such perils during
the war? “Niggers cannot take
care of themselves.” He was a pilot, and earned good wages for his master, and
finally gained a handsome purse for himself and his fellow fugitives. “Niggers
are inferior to whites.” Perhaps they
are, but they seem to possess good material for improvement. Few white men have
a better record than Robert Smalls.