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Robert Smalls was a slave who is chiefly remembered for one act of daring that struck a blow for the emancipation of slaves in the US. He freed himself and his family from slavery on May 13, 1862 by commandeering a Confederate transport ship, The Planter, to freedom in Charleston harbor. Smalls remained a political figure into the twentieth century and was a delegate to the 1895 constitutional convention. He spoke out against the disenfranchisement of black voters. With one break in service, Smalls was U.S. Collector of Customs 1889–1911 in Beaufort, where he lived as owner of the house in which he had been a slave.

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