Episode 82 (The Wheel)
the memory palace
Nate DiMeo
4.8 • 7.3K Ratings
🗓️ 11 February 2016
⏱️ 17 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Music * Julia Rovinsky plays Phillip Glass’ Metamorphosis I, from her album Dusk. * There’s an excerpt from Paul Drescher’s “Casa Vecchia,” from the Mirrors: Other Fire album. * There’s a chunk of Jose Gonzalez’ “Instrumental” from his Stay in the ShadeEP. * “Manny Returns Home” from Bernard Hermann’s score to The Wrong Man. * Branka Parlic plays Philip Glass’ “Mad Rush.” Twice. * “Quiet Fan for SK,” by P.G. Six. * Things get heavy to “Particles of the Universe (Heartbeats)” from Dan Romer and Ben Zeitlin’s score to Beasts of the Southern Wild.
Notes There’s a lot written about Robert Smalls, with a lot of contradictory information. I found Edward A. Miller’s Gullah Statesman: Robert Smalls from Slavery to Congress particularly useful to sorting it all out. Some other sources I consulted while researching this piece: * The Negro’s Civil War: How American Blacks Felt and Acted During the War for the Union by the Don, James McPherson * From Slavery to Public Service: Robert Smalls, 1839-1915, by Okon Uya. * And, for what it’s worth, Robert Smalls: The Boat Thief from RFK Jr.’s American Heroes Series is an enjoyable and surprisingly thorough version of the story for young readers, if you’re ever looking for that sort of thing.
Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choicesTranscript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | This is the memory palace. I'm Nate Demet. |
| 0:22.0 | What if they just took the boat? |
| 0:24.0 | We could do it. It would be dangerous, but what if they just took the boat? |
| 0:30.0 | They had the men. There were eight of them who were solid. They were good sailors and they could keep their mouth shut. |
| 0:36.0 | They had the men. |
| 0:38.0 | In truth, we told Robert it could probably handle it all in his own. |
| 0:41.0 | He worked in all sorts of ships, scooters and slips, side-wheel steamers like the planter. |
| 0:48.0 | Just let him get his hands in the wheel. |
| 0:51.0 | In Robert's smalls knew these waters. He'd been sailing them for years, knew every inlet, every island. |
| 0:58.0 | He could read the tides and to it the shifts in the currents. He couldn't read read. They didn't teach slaves to read. |
| 1:05.0 | But he taught himself to interpret the nautical charts. |
| 1:09.0 | Not that he'd need them. Not around here. He'd been piloting the planter for months, moving Confederate soldiers and supplies up and down the coast. |
| 1:18.0 | He knew where all the mines were around the channel out of Charleston. Hell, he'd been there when they'd lay them down. |
| 1:24.0 | He could do it. |
| 1:27.0 | He could. What if they just took the boat? |
| 1:32.0 | It had started as a joke from one of the other slaves who worked in the planter. |
| 1:38.0 | But the joke stopped being funny. |
| 1:41.0 | They started talking about it at night, started making plans. |
| 1:45.0 | They were a year into the war, a year since Fort Sumter. There at the mouth of the harbor, put up Jeff Davis' flag. |
| 1:53.0 | But the Yankees were closing in. They'd taken back Buford Island, just off the coast. |
| 1:58.0 | Robert's mother was there now. He was born there. She had been too. |
| 2:03.0 | Two generations of native born slaves from Buford Island. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Nate DiMeo, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Nate DiMeo and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.