The Wheel

the memory palace

Nate DiMeo

Radiotopia, Publicradio, History, Natedimeo

4.8 • 7.2K Ratings

🗓️ 7 August 2020

⏱️ 18 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In a terrible summer often filled with stories about monuments to terrible men, here is a story about an American hero. Build monuments to Robert Smalls.

Originally released on February 10th, 2016.

The Memory Palace is a proud member of the Radiotopia Network.

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 Shade EP.
* “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.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I record this on a strange kind of bad microphone on a strange, not very good
0:05.2	vacation in a strange and truly terrible year. Here in the United States and
0:10.2	elsewhere we have spent a lot of time talking about monuments, memorials to
0:14.1	terrible men this summer. This is a story of a deserving one and this is the
0:19.9	best I can do as a memorial. If you get something out of the story you want to
0:23.8	share it and share his story please do. I'll be back with a new story next time in
0:28.4	Barring Emergencies, a new story straight through to the end of the year, but
0:32.4	though we don't seem to bar emergencies very well these days. So I'll keep my
0:36.2	fingers crossed. In the meantime the story is called The Wheel. This is the memory
0:41.7	palace. I'm Nate Demet.
0:58.4	What if they just took the boat? They could do it. It would be dangerous but what if
1:08.8	they just took the boat? They had the men. There were eight of them who were
1:13.5	solid. They were good sailors and they could keep their mouth shut. They had
1:17.6	the men. In truth be told Robert could probably handle it all on his own. He
1:22.7	worked in all sorts of ships, scooters and slips, side-wheel steamers like the
1:27.6	planter. Just let him get his hands in the wheel. In Robert Smalls knew these
1:34.5	waters. He'd been sailing them for years, knew every inlet, every island. He could
1:40.0	read the tides and to it the shifts in the currents. He couldn't read read. They
1:44.9	didn't teach slaves to read. But he taught himself to interpret the
1:48.6	nautical charts. Not that he'd need them. Not around here. He'd been piloting
1:54.0	the planter for months, moving Confederate soldiers and supplies up and down the
1:58.2	coast. He knew where all the mines were around the channel out of Charleston. Hell he'd
	...

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