This is an IHeart podcast.

Welcome to Aaron Menke's Cabinet of Curiosity's, A production of IHeart Radio and grim and mild.

Our world is full of the unexplainable.

And if history is an open book, all of these

amazing tales are right there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the

Cabinet of Curiosity's. Robert refused to give in to fear. Born into slavery in the American South, he always found

small ways to rebel. His proudest moment was when he married his wife Hannah, who was also enslaved.

Their marriage wasn't even legally recognized by the state of South

Carolina, but they did it anyway. He had also proven himself smart and capable enough at various

jobs until he was stationed on a steamship called the planter. The crew was mostly fellow

enslaved people, with only three white officers to oversee all of them. It was better than being on a plantation,

and then they got to be out on the water and move around, but their overseers were just as

hateful and condescending as any white slave owners on land. They had had done much sailing over the

past year, since the war broke out and the union blockaded Charleston, trapping the planter and other ships in Charleston Harbor.

They could still run supplies back and forth between the piers, but that was about it.

As such, Robert started to notice the captain and the other two officers grow lax when it came

to military regulations.

They weren't supposed to ever leave the enslaved people alone on the ship,

but that started to happen more and more regularly. More shocking than that, one night the

captain told Robert that he and the other officers were going to town to be with their families

for the night, and he left the ship in Robert's care. Well, the war raged on. Every time Robert got word of a Confederate victory,

his heart sank. He and his wife now had two small children to care for, but those children

...