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Criminal

Robert Smalls

Criminal

Vox Media Podcast Network

Society & Culture, True Crime

4.739.4K Ratings

🗓️ 19 June 2020

⏱️ 33 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On May 13, 1862, in Charleston, South Carolina, a man named Robert Smalls took command of a Confederate ship called The Planter and liberated himself and his family from enslavement. As they passed the Confederate-held Fort Sumter, Robert Smalls was said to have saluted it with a whistle, and then added an extra one, “as a farewell to the confederacy.” Robert Smalls’ great-great-grandson, Michael Boulware Moore, tells the story. Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Sign up for our occasional newsletter, The Accomplice. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts: iTunes.com/CriminalShow. We also make This is Love and Phoebe Reads a Mystery. Artwork by Julienne Alexander. Check out our online shop.  Episode transcripts are posted on our website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Support for this show comes from Krakan.

0:03.0

Krypto is like the financial system, but different.

0:07.0

It doesn't care where you come from, what you look like, your credit score,

0:11.0

or your outrageous food delivery habits.

0:13.7

crypto is finance for everyone everywhere all the time.

0:18.4

Krakhan, see what crypto can be.

0:21.3

Don't invest unless you're prepared to lose all the money you invest.

0:24.9

This is a high-risk investment

0:26.4

and you should not expect to be protected if something goes wrong.

0:31.0

Robert was born an enslaved person in 1839 in Beaufort, South Carolina.

0:40.0

He was born to a mother who was a domestic for their master and their family.

0:47.0

He was born in a little shack behind the big house, so to speak.

0:52.0

He was born on a day that there was a hanging going on

0:59.0

an enslaved person was being executed and the whole town left and so his mother who was in her

1:07.3

mid 40s when she gave birth delivered on the floor of this shack by herself.

1:15.0

And I've always kind of just thought about that.

1:18.5

I can't imagine giving birth in 1839

1:22.3

in your mid-40s by yourself on the floor, but such as how Robert came into

1:28.9

this world.

1:31.2

His mother's name was Lydia Polite. She was born enslaved and worked in the home of a man

1:37.3

named John McKee. She helped raise his seven children, including his youngest son, Henry.

1:44.3

When John McKee died, Henry McKee inherited Lydia Polite.

...

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