Robert Smalls To Be Honored With Statehouse Statue

by Jameelah Mullen

October 24, 2024

The Robert Smalls statue will be the first monument to honor an African American person.

¹South Carolina will soon erect its first individual statue for a Black person on its Statehouse lawn in its capital, Columbia. During the Civil War,  Robert Smalls, a native of the Gullah Geechee Corridor city of Beaufort, South Carolina, donned a Confederate uniform to steal an enslaver’s ship. Smalls sailed his family and others to freedom.

For more than a decade, Smalls served in the U.S. House and helped rewrite South Carolina’s constitution, which allowed Black men equality after the Civil War.

Democratic Rep. Jermaine Johnson said he is excited to bring his children to the Statehouse to see this historic monument.

“The man has done so many great things, it’s just a travesty he has not been honored until now. Heck, it’s also a travesty there isn’t some big Hollywood movie out there about his life,” Johnson told The Associated Press. 

The idea for Smalls’ statue has been brewing for years but has been met with opposition.  However, in 2024, the state House and the Senate unanimously approved the proposal. 

Some lawmakers are contemplating the best way to honor Smalls. Some want to depict him as the ship pilot who navigated others to freedom. Others would like to recognize him as the politician who advocated for education and voting rights for Black Americans.  The state-implemented Robert Smalls Monument Commission will work together to develop a design for the statue.

Robert Smalls was born in Beaufort in 1839 to Lydia Polite, an enslaved woman. Smalls later purchased his childhood home, located at  511 Prince Street, from his former master.  

Smalls’  legacy is apparent in his hometown of Beaufort, where a school is named after the leader. Robert Smalls Parkway is a section of U.S. Highway 170 that runs through Beaufort. A bust of Robert Smalls is located at Tabernacle Baptist Church in Downtown Beaufort, where the Civil War hero is buried. 

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