The Planter's officers went ashore for the night and left the ship in the hands of men the Confederacy counted as property. That was the mistake.
Robert Smalls did a pilot's job in Charleston Harbor, but the Confederacy would not give a Black man the rank. It called him a wheelman. Every trip still taught him the harbor, its forts, and the signals its defenders expected.
Before dawn, Smalls and the crew took the ship and collected their families. Navy reports counted sixteen people aboard, though later official records disagree by one. They crossed the harbor using the signals Smalls already knew.
Fort Sumter let them pass. Then the danger changed sides. The Union ship Onward prepared to fire on the Confederate steamer coming toward her. Her commander saw the white flag before the guns fired.
The group delivered the ship and its guns to the Union fleet and reached freedom. Smalls later bought the Beaufort house where he had been held, entered Congress, and fought South Carolina's effort to strip Black men of the vote. In 1895, that fight ended in defeat.
Reconstruction note
What the episode will show
Recreated scenes will be visibly illustrated. The portrait, map, house photograph, congressional reports, and convention speeches are authentic source material and will be credited on screen.
The sources conflict on the light near Fort Sumter, the exact number aboard, and who was physically at the wheel. The episode will not quietly choose a convenient version.